Returns the major version number of the ACIS executable.
Role: The ACIS product binaries contain information to identify its version.
This version information consists of 3 numbers: a major, a minor, and a point number.
All ACIS releases are versioned and can be identified by these numbers.
The ACIS 8.0 release, for example, has a major number of 8,
a minor number of 0, and a point number of 0. For simplicity, these numbers
are depicted with dot separation (e.g. 8.0.0).
The first service pack to the ACIS 8.0 release would consequently be identified as 8.0.1.
The major number obviously describes the major release version number,
the minor number describes the minor release version number, and the point version
describes the service pack level of the product.
The purpose of the 3-part ACIS versioning system is not only to identify the significance
of the changes and enhancements of the product but also to provide expectations
of the impact these changes can pose to the customer. Major releases signify
significant changes to the product that could require changes in customer code
in order to integrate the release. These changes, which require rebuilding and re-linking,
are simplified by the use of the update tool, which is delivered with the ACIS product.
Minor releases signify minor changes to the product that do not require changes in customer code,
but could require a complete rebuild and re-link of the customer application in order to
integrate the release. Point releases (service packs) signify minimal changes to the product
that do not require any code changes, rebuilds, or re-links, in order to integrate the release.
The current version of the ACIS product can be queried at runtime by calling
the get_major_version(), get_minor_version(), and get_point_version() functions,
which return the major, minor, and point version numbers respectively.