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I noticed that there are some tags that are the same as an existing tag but with a version number. I would think that this kind of specificity isn't necessary here at Programmers. Version information can be more accurately expressed in the question title or the question itself if it is relevant. Since we focus on conceptual questions about software development, I can't imagine specific version information is helpful when tagging.

On Stack Oveflow I think these type of tags make sense because questions can be tagged with both the general and specific tag due to volume and the direct nature of many questions. That is, having tags with specific versions is useful and complementary to the un-versioned tags.

So, with that in mind, I gathered a list of tags that might be worth taking a look at. However, I do think there are special cases and have grouped some of them separately. Feel free to contest any of these, as I am not 100% sure about a few of them. If this is just stupid, let me know and I'll walk away. It just didn't make sense when I saw a couple of these tags today.

Candidates:

Complete:

Special Cases (as in, they should be separate)

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  • What about some sort of inheritance for tags?
    – Jason Lewis
    Jun 15, 2012 at 22:38

2 Answers 2

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  • and should be separate tags. HTML5 is a major overhaul of HTML, and it introduces some quite unique features and design considerations. Furthermore, when I see a question tagged I expect it to be about a bit more than HTML, as the popular meaning of the term implies the use of technologies like Ajax and CSS3, not just HTML. More or less the same for and .

  • , , and could be merged or stay separate. Windows 8 introduces some design considerations that are unique and have little to do with previous windows versions, e.g. Metro. I don't consider myself a windows developer, so take this with a grain of salt.

  • and should definitely stay separate. VB6 is a quite different beast from what we think of as Visual Basic today.

  • , , and should be merged, and we should probably clean them up as well, last time I checked questions on programming tools are off topic.

I don't know enough about Flex and Python to comment.

I agree with the general sentiment that Programmers have little use for version specific tags, however I think that when a language / framework version introduces unique design / architecture considerations, the tag should stay. And there isn't a one size fits all solution, you say that and are entirely different frameworks, but would you say the same if you haven't worked with both?

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  • Thanks for the comments, Yannis. The reason why I said struts and struts2 should stay separate is because they really are two entirely different code bases. As far as I know, the name Struts2 was used to capitalize on the success of Struts1. It was mostly a re-branding of the WebWork framework with some new stuff added. As for the flex tags, I've worked with the framework and there really is no reason to have flex4, it's no different than not having java6 and java7 tags. I am on the fence about the Python. I know version 3 was a big change, but I don't know much else.
    – Jeremy
    Jun 6, 2012 at 14:12
  • @JeremyHeiler There are several projects with nonsensical versioning, for example what would have been PHP 6 became PHP5.3 (and if that wasn't bad enough, PHP5.4 is also a major version in everything but name). I'll take your word for struts/2, but my main point is that we should approach this per case, however tedious that might be.
    – yannis
    Jun 6, 2012 at 14:15
  • I agree, case by case.
    – Jeremy
    Jun 6, 2012 at 14:16
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With the exceptions that Yannis notes for , , and , I agree with your reasoning on merging the candidates.

and are language tags whereas , , and are (or should be) about the spec and could / should remain separate. Now that C++11 is approved, merging and would make sense to me.

I don't think that , , , or should be merged for the reasons you point out.

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