First, before explaining why, this is going to be our release and version scheme – Versions with new features will be released around the time a new WordPress version is released. For example since the next WordPress version due to be released in august will be 4.6, the next release of a version with new features will happen at august and will be called 4.6.
Bug fix releases, like WordPress bug fix releases, will have a minor number, and they will focus on bug fix only, no new features. So if the main release in august will be 4.6, any bug fixing release to it will be 4.6.x.
Why are we doing that?
As both software developers and users we know that upgrading any kind of software also have some risk. It might contain changes you do not like, or just have bugs. Our new release and version scheme tries to help users decide when they should upgrade and when not
- From just looking at the release number a user can know if the upgrade is important. If it is a minor release it probably is. From the version number it is also easier to tell when upgrades contain full new features which makes them riskier.
- The schedule helps users to reduce the overhead of test upgrades. They should be able to test new versions of the plugin together with new versions of WordPress, which will save the overhead of setting up testing enviroment and allocating some time to do the testing
We hope this plan makes sense to you as well, and if not, the comment section is here for you to raise any concerns you might have.