>I'm not sure what MS thought was the problem with the minor version numbering system, but at some point, they discarded it- at least for Dev Tools. Now that there is no such thing at MS as version 6.5, they had no choice but to put minor upgrades into a Service Pack. The change in semantics is silly if you ask me, and is one more reason that all marketing people should be tarred and feathered.

Our options were:
1. Change the version number and throw out all the existing inventory of Visual Studio, as well as VFP, since the channel won't carry old versions. Redo all the boxes with the new version number: 6.x. This carries an immense cost, by the way, and never would have happened.
2. Wait until 7.0 to do anything. That would have meant a delay of 2 years, not that anyone is counting! <g>
3. Quietly slip them into SP3 so you guys would get these features quickly and free.

We chose #3. If you want to tar and feather me (and Randy and Ricardo and Calvin since they were in on this too) for that, be my guest! <vbg>