What is the significance of the different version numbers?
Guile versioning philosophy has changed. It used to be simple MAJOR.MINOR in the classic GNU style, but starting post 1.4, it is MAJOR.MINOR.MICRO, w/ semantics similar to that of the Linux kernel. So, all the 1.5.x series are “unstable” and w/ enough feedback and bugfixes, a 1.6.x series will be released at some point. All released versions are available to everyone, of course, but those w/ even middle numbers are “stable” and in the eyes of the maintainers, most suitable for universal distribution. 1.7.x is the next unstable series, work on it to begin in earnest once the first 1.6.x is released, and eventually leading to a 1.8.x series. And so on. What this means to you: If you are new to guile or have used 1.4 (or earlier) in the past, you should use 1.5.x and then demand 1.6.x from your distribution packagers once it comes out. If you package guile for a distribution, you should tell the package maintainers in your distribution who use guile read this post, and then distribute 1.6
