> David Brownlee wrote:
> 
> >         How about 'nb<n>' which evaluates as .0.<n> in the deweydecimal,
> >         so we get
> > 
> >                 1.1 < 1.1nb3 < 1.1.1
> > 
> >         What do people think?
> 
>   Sounds good, but why not have any non-numeric followed immediately by
> a number evaluate to .0.<n>?  This way we wouldn't have to immediately
> change a whole bunch of packages.  Also, versions like 1.1a1, 1.1b1, and
> 1.1p1 usually indicate completely different things (such as 'alpha',
> 'beta', or 'patchlevel') which may not even be netbsd-specific but
> rather have been introduced by the original author.  Changing all these
> to 'nb' would cause us to lose some information.
> 
>   As for NetBSD-specific changes: yes, I believe changing things like
> '1.1abs1', '1.1rh1' to something common like 'nb' would be a good thing
> ...

Because different packages (from trafshow to exmh to lsof) use
non-numeric suffices in different way. When a package uses the "p1"
suffix, does it mean patch 1, or pre-release 1? Similarly, does
1.1a mean 1.1 alpha, or 1.1 patch 1?

These are the reasons that non-numeric support has not been added
to the dewey decimal matching routines.

I think that abs's suggestion is great, and wish I had thought of
it myself.

Regards,
Alistair