On Tue, Jul 21, 1998 at 05:23:45PM +0100, Ian Jackson wrote: > I agree that we should do this (have a character which sorts before > anything, including the empty string), but we should not make it ~, > because ~ is currently not legal in version numbers. > > We have two choices: (a) we can invent a new character not currently > legal, or (b) we can change the meaning of an existing character. > > (a) means that packages (and Packages files, etc.) with the new > character will be rejected by the old software (dpkg, etc). > > (b) means that they'll be accepted, but sorted wrong by the old > software, until the new software is installed. > > I think (b) is better. I favour `-' as a character. This has one > negative consequence: you can't use it in a revision, because the > revision is the part after the last `-'. However, it does have a > slightly good connotation of `subtraction'.
[Drat - reference has disappeared so I can't see what symbols are allowed] IMO "-" is too overused, isn't there something else we can use instead (see above note). Even if "-" is quite nice for subtraction, having packages called boo_98-06-23-43-2.3_i386.deb could be a tad confusing ?-) Adrian email: [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.poboxes.com/adrian.bridgett Windows NT - Unix in beta-testing. PGP key available on public key servers Debian Linux http://www.debian.org The superior Linux distribution -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
