Version should be optional

[leongersen]

The version field in the manifest is required. My repository already uses a semver versioning system, and thus provides tags with a proper version number. In fact, the documentation on publishing states this as a requirement. Why does this number need to be duplicated in the manifest? All this accomplishes is a bunch of updates to the manifest, even though it didn't really change.

[scottgonzalez]

Because tags are a concept that exists outside of your code. Anyone with a copy (not a clone) of your code, will not have the available data.

[leongersen]

All right. But if a tag doesn't exist within the code, why would a version number need to?

[scottgonzalez]

So you can actually see the version number. That's why the manifest is more important than the tag.