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<p class=MsoNormal>It appears to me as if the behavior of parse_version(‘dev’)
has changed with setuptools-0.6c9, but this change is not documented on the
setuptools documentation. Assuming pv=parse_version, the documentation implies
that pv(‘a’) < pv(‘b’) < pv(‘c’) ==
pv(‘rc’) < pv(‘d’) == pv(‘dev’)…
but it turns out that pv(‘dev’) == pv(‘@’) < pv(‘a’).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>I suggest the documentation say something like the
following:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p>A pre-release tag is a series of letters that are alphabetically before
"final". Some examples of prerelease tags would include <span
class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>alpha</span></span>,
<span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>beta</span></span>,
<span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>a</span></span>,
<span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>c</span></span>,
<span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>dev</span></span>,
and so on. You do not have to place a dot before the prerelease tag if it's
immediately after a number, but it's okay to do so if you prefer. Thus, <span
class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>2.4c1</span></span>
and <span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>2.4.c1</span></span>
both represent release candidate 1 of version <span class=pre><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>2.4</span></span>, and are
treated as identical by setuptools.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>In addition, there are three special prerelease tags that are treated as if
they were the letter <span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>c</span></span>: <span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'>pre</span></span>, <span class=pre><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>preview</span></span>, and <span
class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>rc</span></span>.
So, version <span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>2.4rc1</span></span>,
<span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>2.4pre1</span></span>
and <span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>2.4preview1</span></span>
are all the exact same version as <span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'>2.4c1</span></span>, and are treated as identical by
setuptools.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Furthermore, <span class=pre><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>dev</span></span>
is a special tag that is always less than any other character tag. It is
treated as the equivalent of the character ‘@’.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Any objections?<o:p></o:p></p>
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