Ben Finney
Those that do specify are *much* more obvious and simple in their comparison of individual components than what is currently in the ‘distutilsversion’ specification. Usually it's a simple case of “once we've got the individual components of a version string, they compare alphanumerically”. […]
I'm arguing that, having got those components, and needing to compare them *within an individual component position* for ordering, the best candidate for “simple to describe and remember, and obvious to guess” is that the components are compared alphanumerically with no special exceptions.
As pointed out, I'm oversimplifying: the consensus I've seen includes the semantic that sequences of digits in any component are to be treated as integers and compared accordingly. I think that should be part of the specification (and it was so obvious in my mind that I forgot to express it :-) -- \ “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is | `\ obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn't.” —Mark Twain, | _o__) _Following the Equator_ | Ben Finney