diff --git a/cgen/__init__.py b/cgen/__init__.py
index 97a878efe20c7e6aae55e66451b910ea80f59ae7..f42ccd66a87174ba7b17a9cf1a89d39569299696 100644
--- a/cgen/__init__.py
+++ b/cgen/__init__.py
@@ -816,11 +816,15 @@ class Line(Generable):
 
 
 class Comment(Generable):
-    def __init__(self, text):
+    def __init__(self, text, skip_space=False):
         self.text = text
+        if skip_space:
+            self.fmt_str = "/*%s*/"
+        else:
+            self.fmt_str = "/* %s */"
 
     def generate(self):
-        yield "/* %s */" % self.text
+        yield self.fmt_str % self.text
 
     mapper_method = "map_comment"
 
diff --git a/cgen/version.py b/cgen/version.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..922dd503cf5856279cfaadc1adedf45efb8b35cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cgen/version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+VERSION = (2018, 1)
+VERSION_STATUS = ""
+VERSION_TEXT = ".".join(str(x) for x in VERSION) + VERSION_STATUS
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8ab7b03ee64ab314b3f4d93f386bc8df9ae5b89b..804c236e81f5eae4a2bebeb8a567d48f030b4395 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -6,9 +6,15 @@ from setuptools import setup
 with open("README.rst", "rt") as inf:
     readme = inf.read()
 
+ver_dic = {}
+with open("cgen/version.py") as version_file:
+    version_file_contents = version_file.read()
+
+exec(compile(version_file_contents, "cgen/version.py", 'exec'), ver_dic)
+
 setup(
         name="cgen",
-        version="2017.1",
+        version=ver_dic["VERSION_TEXT"],
         description="C/C++ source generation from an AST",
         long_description=readme,
         classifiers=[