Alpha, beta, ....

[Derek Broughton]

Pastor JW wrote:

> On Saturday 03 May 2008 11:18:00 am Sandy Harris wrote:
>> Is there a way to find out which pieces of 8.04 are
>> in what state? Alpha, beta, whatever? Seems to
>> me we need one.
> 
> I don't think there is one, how would one search?  I suppose a 0.* match
> would reveal less than released versions 

Not really...
> but then is the version number standard
> that well observed?  What is the difference between alpha numbers and beta
> ones?

Technically, it _has_ to be well observed within the Ubuntu packaging
system, because alpha, beta, and release candidates have to sort
appropriately so that they will be considered higher versions than lower
release numbers: 0.9 < 1.0alpha5 < 1.0beta2 < 1.0rc1 < 1.0 
BUT 1.0 < 1.0ubuntu1 < 1.1

I'm not exactly sure what that standard _is_, but iirc any string after the
version number sorts in default ascii order, except alpha*, beta* and rc*
which sort before "".

> There must be a different than gnash tool to play swf as I don't have
> gnash installed here.
 
I didn't think I did either...
-- 
derek