+# X.Y.Z releases where Z=0 are called major
+# releases and X.Y.Z releases where Z>1 are called point releases.
+#
+# The development process distinction is that X.Y.0 releases are
+# branched from main and then subsequent X.Y.Z releases cherry-pick
+# individual features from main onto the "X.Y-staging" branch.
+#
+# In semantic versioning terminology an "X.Y.0" release which only
+# increments Y is called a "minor" release but typically these
+# releases have significant changes that calling them "minor" in
+# communications with users feels misleading.
+#
+# Incrementing X is reserved for times when a release has significant
+# backwards-incompatible changes, which we don't do very often and try
+# to avoid.
+#
+# In order to assign a useful development version, we need to
+# determine if we're on the main branch (or a development branch off
+# main) or on a release branch. We do this by looking at the point
+# where the current commit history branched from main.
+#
+# If a new major version appeared on a branch (not directly in the
+# history of main), the merge-base between main and the release should
+# be tagged as "development-X.Y.Z" so that version-at-commit can
+# figure out what to do.
+