Version metadata on Racket packages

Hello racket-users,

As far as I can tell from reading the Racket documentation, the racket 
package manager has only one field to indicate version.  I am trying to 
understand the intended use of the version field.

Here the documentation seems to recommend that packages use the version 
field to denote a semantic versioning scheme of for the specific 
package's release cycle:

    https://docs.racket-lang.org/pkg/Package_Concepts.html
             a version — a string of the form ‹maj›.‹min›,
    ‹maj›.‹min›.‹sub›, or ‹maj›.‹min›.‹sub›.‹rel›, where ‹maj›, ‹min›,
    ‹sub›, and ‹rel› are all canonical decimal representations of
    natural numbers, ‹rel› is not 0, ‹sub› is not 0 unless ‹rel› is
    supplied, ‹min› has no more than two digits, and ‹sub› and ‹rel›
    have no more than three digits. A version is intended to reflect
    available features of a package, and should not be confused with
    different releases of a package as indicated by the checksum.

Here the documentation refers to a "Racket version number," which might 
be taken to mean a version number of the Racket language:

    https://docs.racket-lang.org/pkg/catalog-protocol.html
             8.1 Remote and Directory Catalogs
                 In the case of a remote URL or a local directory naming
    a package catalog, the URL/path is extended as follows to obtain
    information about packages:

                 pkg and ‹package› path elements, where ‹package› is a
    package name, plus a version=‹version› query (where ‹version› is a
    Racket version number) in the case of a remote URL.

It seems natural for packages that tightly depend on quickly evolving 
features of the Racket language to have a versioning scheme coupled to 
Racket's own versions.  On the other hand, for packages that work with a 
variety of possible Racket versions, it seems to make sense that said 
packages would have their own release cycles, compatibility aspirations, 
and semantic versioning contract.

Note that some package managers for evolving languages have two 
versioning coordinates, one for the language version and one for the 
package version.

Appended below this message is a small racket program that inspects data 
from the https://pkgs.racket-lang.org/pkgs-all HTTP endpoint.  According 
to this analysis, 21% of published Racket packages version using version 
numbers of the Racket language. Fewer than 1% of published Racket 
packages seem to version using their own version scheme.  And 78% of 
published Racket packages have only ever filled the version field with 
"default".

As the documentation notes, using checksum instead of a version field is 
sort of like saying any feature can change at any time to any degree: "A 
version is intended to reflect available features of a package, and 
should not be confused with different releases of a package as indicated 
by the checksum."

My question is this: What is the intended use of the version field in 
the Racket package manager?

Thanks in advance,


Jeff Henrikson


    #lang racket

    ;; obtain data with:
    ;; curl https://pkgs.racket-lang.org/pkgs-all > contrib_pkgs-all.sexp


    ;; relfin is "contrib_pkgs-all.sexp" or similar.
    ;;
    ;; In practice it's one value that comes over the wire, so
    ;; we'll just take the car now.
    (define (read-pkgs5 relfin)
       (letrec (
                (fin (open-input-file relfin))
                (iter (lambda (xs)
                        (let ((x (read fin)))
                          (if (not (equal? x eof))
                              (iter (cons x xs))
                              (begin
                                (close-input-port fin)
                                xs))))))
         (car (reverse (iter '())))))


    ;;; Get the versions of a package hash
    (define (versions-of-pkg pkg)
       (hash-keys (hash-ref pkg 'versions)))

    ;;; Is there at least one version that appears to be distinct
    ;;; from a racket version?
    ;; Racket version numbers contemporaneous with the remote catalog
    ;; seem to start around version 6.
    (define (package-uses-version-for-package? pkg)
       (not (empty? (filter (lambda (v)
                              (and
                               (string? v)
                               (string<? v "5")))
                            (versions-of-pkg pkg)))))



    ;;; Is there at least one version that appears to be a racket version?
    ;; Racket version numbers contemporaneous with the remote catalog
    ;; seem to start around version 6.
    (define (package-uses-version-for-racket? pkg)
       (not (empty? (filter (lambda (v)
                              (and
                               (string? v)
                               (not (equal? v "default"))
                               (string<? "5" v)))
                            (versions-of-pkg pkg)))))

    ;;; Histogram the identified uses of the version field
    (define (classify-version-use pkgs)
       (define (how-used pkg)
         (cond
                ((package-uses-version-for-package? pkg) 'package-versioned)
                ((package-uses-version-for-racket? pkg) 'racket-versioned)
                (else 'no-versioning-used)))
       (define (increment x)
         (+ x 1))
       (let* (
              (h (make-hash))
              (_ (for-each (lambda (kv)
                             (hash-update! h (how-used (cdr kv))
    increment 0))
                           (hash->list pkgs)))
              (num-by-use (hash->list h)))
         num-by-use))



    (module+ main
       (define pkgs (read-pkgs5 "contrib_pkgs-all.sexp"))

       (classify-version-use pkgs)
       ;; '((no-versioning-used . 1472) (racket-versioned . 379)
    (package-versioned . 13))
    )


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