Zig version 0.8.0 is too old? about ziglings HOT 12 CLOSED

New README text:

Verify the installation and build number of zig like so:
$ zig version
0.8.0-dev.1065+xxxxxxxxx
...
A Note About Versions
The Zig language is under very active development. In order to be current, Ziglings tracks development builds of the Zig compiler rather than versioned release builds. The last stable release was 0.7.1, but Ziglings needs a dev build with pre-release version "0.8.0" and a build number at least as high as that shown in the example version check above.

It is likely that you'll download a build which is greater than the minimum.

Once you have a build of the Zig compiler that works with Ziglings, they'll continue to work together. But keep in mind that if you update one, you may need to also update the other.

New version fail message:

\ERROR: Sorry, it looks like your version of zig is too old. :-(
\
\Ziglings requires development build
\
\ 0.8.0-dev.1065
\
\or higher. Please download a development ("master") build from
\https://ziglang.org/download/

🤓

And just throwing this info out into the ether: when we update the Ziglings target build, there are now 3️⃣ places where it will need to change: one in the README and two in zig.build (until somebody figures out how to format strings all known revisions of Zig past, present, and future).

from ziglings.

Thanks for the deep investigation. Just another usability issue. When I attempt to build with the same old version of zig I get your new error message:

mark@mlwin:~/mark/Downloads/zig-windows-x86_64-0.8.0-dev.1059+79730e6f5/ziglings$ PATH=.. zig build 04
ERROR: Sorry, it looks like your version of zig is too old. :-(

Ziglings requires development build

    0.8.0-dev.1065

or higher. Please download a development ("master") build from
https://ziglang.org/download/
Cannot run step '04' because it does not exist
Usage: C:\Users\mark\Downloads\zig-windows-x86_64-0.8.0-dev.1059+79730e6f5\zig.exe build [steps] [options]

... [lots of text snipped]

But as you can see it doesn't stop after the error, attempting to run the step anyway (and producing a usage message along the way). Perhaps a harder exit is in order?

from ziglings.

It actually is...but it's super close. The minimum build we're targeting at the moment is 1065 and you've got 1059.

We should print the minimum we're accepting alongside the version you have to make this clearer.

from ziglings.

So, I got this to work...until I actually tested it with an older version.

The Catch-22 here is that the format string syntax changed between builds, so my attempt to print the old version number doesn't work with old versions. 🤣

I have attempted to reword the error message and README to make it clearer that even a lower build number can be too old.

I think I'll just leave this issue sitting here for another week or so in case any powerful Zig maestros happen to be wandering by and want to tackle the chicken-and egg task (and test thoroughly with a spectrum of Zig versions to make sure it works)!

from ziglings.

Zig version 0.8.0 doesn't exist. 0.8.0-dev.1059+79730e6f5 means that it is 0.8.0 minus the version number. So 0.7.1 plus a version. I have seen this confusion a lot lately.

from ziglings.

@g-w1 What does

0.8.0 minus the version number

mean? I don't think I've seen this versioning scheme before. Is this documented somewhere on ziglang.org? I didn't find anything in a cursory sweep.

And do you think we need to update any of the Ziglings wording to be more accurate/helpful?

Relevant part of README.md:

The Zig language is under very active development. Ziglings will attempt to be current, but not bleeding-edge. However, sometimes fundamental changes will happen. Ziglings will check for a minimum version and build number.

And the build.zig version warning:

ERROR: Sorry, it looks like your version of zig is too old. :-(

The README lists the minimum version and build number.

Thanks!

from ziglings.

@g-w1 What does

0.8.0 minus the version number

mean? I don't think I've seen this versioning scheme before. Is this documented somewhere on ziglang.org? I didn't find anything in a cursory sweep.

ziglang/zig#6509

I think its just to comply better with semver.

from ziglings.

@g-w1 Well, that turned out to be a bit of a rabbit hole. Time to close some browser tabs. 😆

If I read everything correctly, everything after the - in -dev.xxxxxx+xxxxxxx is all a pre-release tag. So, yeah, 0.8.0 is not a released version. That's true.

But would it be wrong to colloquially refer to the master builds as "version 0.8.0"?

from ziglings.

I think it would be wrong. 0.8.0 is not out yet. Perhaps we could call it nightly build or dev build. And to clear up confusion we should state that the current stable zig version is 0.7.1 and the dev build is what ziglings uses.

from ziglings.

@g-w1 Yup, that's a good point. I especially like the distinction between stable and dev when we can use that distinction to refer to what ziglings supports. 👍

I'll compose some new wording for the README and build.zig.

Thanks again!

from ziglings.

@mlawren Good catch! I never tried that. I believe I've got that fixed now. (Also thanks for reminding me that I could set PATH for a single command. I'm embarrassed to say that I was renaming Zig install directories to use old versions to test this. 😆 ).

from ziglings.

Gonna go ahead and close this one now. We seem to have a pretty good handle on versions now.

from ziglings.