Abstract

We describe a numbering scheme for versions with alternatives that has a useful lexicographical ordering. The version hierarchy is a tree. By inspection of the version numbers, we can easily determine whether one version is an ancestor of another. If so, we can determine the version sequence between these two versions. If not, we can determine the most recent common ancestor to these two versions (i.e., the least upper bound, lub). Sorting the version numbers lexicographically results in a version being followed by all descendants and preceded by all its ancestors. We use a representation of nonnegative integers that is self delimiting and whose lexicographical ordering matches the ordering by value. 1 Introduction Our motivation is a project in collaborative design for Civil Engineering being carried out at Stanford. The approach taken by the project, named CEDB (Collaborative Environment for the Design of Buildings) , leads to an interesting problem in version numbering. Our approa...

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