Tom Howard writes:
Well, if I rewrite my macros (for whatever reason), I
would like to be able to indicate that via the version
number (e.g. bump it from 1.x to 2.0), to indicate a
major change. If they could then be release as a
development snapshot or release candidate, then even
better.
You can: Put the information into the documentation or into
the m4 source code.
@version is an internal field of the archive; it represents
the version of your macro _in the archive_, not the version
you assigned the macro. I have explained my rationale for
this decision in great detail already, my major point being
that other people may modify your macro too; therefore the
archive cannot rely on your version information to be
authoritative. Since the archive cannot denote minor or
major releases for your macro, it doesn't, but just states
the day of the last modification.