Principles

This section defines important principles on which the tracking mechanism is based: versioning, snapshot, and the archiving issues of tracking information.

Versioning

Using version numbers is something we are familiar with; for example, this book describes phpMyAdmin version 3.4.x. However, at this point we must understand exactly why we use version numbers.

A good reference on software versioning is located in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_versioning. This article mentions that version names can be used, but version numbers are more common. More importantly, it states that version numbers "correspond to new developments in the software".

If we apply this principle to database development, the decision that a table is ripe for a new version should be made by the development team when a significant change is about to occur on this table. How significant the change has to be in order to trigger a new version is a matter of interpretation within the team. At least...