JSON grief...

local path = system.pathForFile( "Version.txt", system.DocumentsDirectory )

-- io.open opens a file at path. returns nil if no file found
local file = io.open( path, "r" )
if file then
   -- read all contents of file into a string
   local contents = file:read( "*a" )

   local decodeVersion = json.decode(contents)

   -- print( "Contents of " .. path .. "\n" .. contents )
   io.close( file )
   layout.elements.Text_VersionNumber.text = ( gameInstallation[1] )
else
   -- create file b/c it doesn't exist yet    <------ The game Version
   file = io.open( path, "w" )
   local gameInstallation = {Version = .07, SaveDisk = 0 }

   local encodedVersion = json.encode (gameInstallation)

   file:write( gameInstallation )
   for _,v in ipairs( gameInstallation ) do file:write( v, " " ) end
   file:write( "\nNo more data\n" )
   io.close( file )

   -- layout.elements.Text_VersionNumber.text = ( ) )
end