We fail to follow SemVer – and why it needn’t matter

If extensive libraries and even the tiniest module followed SemVer strictly, dependency hell would be a thing of the past … but humans weren’t made to follow rules.

There are over 125.000 packages on npm today. By the time of this unconference, at least another 5.000 will have been added. Using the right packages in your own modules and applications makes JavaScript the joy to develop it is today. But if even immensely popular libraries fail to properly declare breaking changes, how can we trust the over 50.000 strangers who developed all these modules? Currently we can’t. Let me show you how to write confidence-inspiring modules by leaving package publishing up to the machines – instead of buggy humans.

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1. We fail to follow SemVer JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
2. and why it needn't matter JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
3. !" I'm Stephan @boennemann JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
4. 143,238 packages on npm JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
5. 1. npmsearch.com 2. npm install <package> 3. ? 4. profit JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
6. X.Y.Z JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
7. Semantic Versioning JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
8. MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
9. 1.0.0 JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
10. 1.0.1 JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
11. ~1.0.1 JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
12. 1.1.0 JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
13. ^1.1.0 JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
14. 2.0.0 JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
15. Hauptversionsnummern- erhöhungsangst1 1 Fear of increasing the major version JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
16. You may just improvise new numbers from your mood on that day. The only important thing, is that the version number must be meaningful to you, the author. — Dominic Tarr, sentimentalversioning.org JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
17. dependency hell JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
18. Let's write a tiny module JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
19. In the beginning was code JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
20. the code was npm published JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
21. versions are for computers names are for humans JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
22. Conventions JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
23. breaking change detection JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
24. ⭐ git.io/semantic-release ⭐ JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
25. questions and hopefully answers JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann
26. ✨ Thank you ✨ JS Unconf 2015 – @boennemann