[Development] Adding support for version number comparisons

[Keith Gardner]

>
> >    1. Numerical groupings should be compared integers instead of
> characters
> >    in order to properly allow for "alpha2" < "alpha11".
> >    2. Delimiters should only be used to denote groups of content but be
> >    skipped during the compare.  "alpha" == "-alpha" == "~alpha" ==
> ".alpha"
> >    1. Can be restricted to the first character if this is too broad.
>
> Given that we're numbering things, your last point would probably be
> better-
> numbered 3 instead of 1 again, right?
>
It was actually suppose to be a sub item to 2 but it looks like the tabbing
was lost.


> Note also that version number schemes for particular software are not
> constant
> over time.
>
>  https://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2009/09/03/qt-4th-edition-feature-pack-7/
>
> Are Windows versions in scope?
>
Are you referencing kernel versions or how the OS embeds version numbers
into binaries?  If it is the latter, support is there since they are
strictly four numerical segments.


> I changed grantlee versions to drop a 'v' at some point.
>
>  http://www.grantlee.org/downloads/
>
> I'm sure there are other examples in the past and in the future. I didn't
> read
> closely enough to see if that affects your proposal at all.
>
At this moment, the 'v' is optional and if present, will be ignored.


> My bikeshed color is that a version comparator should only do
> 'component-wise
> numeric comparison' and shouldn't also try to handle prefixes and suffixes
> etc. I'm just adding that because I don't really support any side of this
> discussion beyond bikeshedding.
>
I like the color of your bikeshed.  I personally think prefixes are the
most ambiguous out of all the potential parts to a version number and I
would prefer to not include them.  Suffixes were initially not on my radar
but others responses have convinced me that the desire to have them is
there.
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