I wrote a Clojure library that implemented version comparison for all of the package versioning algorithms I could find[1], and by faaar the Python version comp

I wrote a Clojure library that implemented version comparison for all of the package versioning algorithms I could find[1], and by faaar the Python version comparison algorithm was the weirdest, most annoying one to implement (PEP 440[2], the current standard at the time). So many exceptions to the rules that attempt to be helpful but didn't really help. In my opinion, the best version comparison algorithm is that of the Debian package manager. Super simple, and very flexible. The description of the algorithm fits in just three paragraphs[3]. Most other algorithms implemented in the aforementioned library were actually implemented in terms of it. Prereleases, fourth version numbers, etc. anything you want basically fits nicely in that box. PEP 440 was the only version comparison algorithm that couldn't be neatly implemented in terms of that of Debian's, beating out semver, maven, and rubygems for complexity. 1: http://djhaskin987.gitlab.io/serovers/index.html http://djhaskin987.gitlab.io/serovers/index.html 2: https://peps.python.org/pep-0440/ https://peps.python.org/pep-0440/ 3: https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#version https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.ht...