version numbering for betas

[Gregory Leblanc <gleblanc cu-portland edu>]

Why aren't these 1.3 releases?  Isn't this just what 1.3 releases were
supposed to be for?  People are calling packages "1.4-beta1" which is a
bit annoying for packaging, since I can't use that as a package version
number.  I end up changing the version in configure, then doing a
./configure && make dist.  Even if they're not 1.3 releases, why are
they under "stable" and not under "testing"?  Sorry if this sounds
acusatory, it's not meant that way, I just want to know the rationale
behind abandoning things that GNOME has done in the past.  Thanks,

    Greg