Actually I found my answer just now after asking a friend who is a debian user. Turns out debian documents the pseudocode for their method in the manpages.
So I am just busy translating the pseudo to pascal now. 1. take any initial string of non-digits from each, remove, and compare ASCIIbetically. If there's a difference, terminate. If not: 2. Take any initial string of digits from each, remove, and compare numerically. If there's a difference, terminate. If not, goto 1. (Oh and I'm using while, not goto :p ) A.J. On Friday 02 June 2006 23:11, Vincent Snijders wrote: > A.J. Venter wrote: > > So the question is: > > 1) does somebody HAVE an algorithm for this already ? > > 2) If not, can somebody give me a hint about what approach to take ? > > Split the version string in several numbers: > version := '4.0.12'; > major := 4 > minor := 0; > patch := 12; > > versionnumber := major * 10000 + minor * 100 + patch > > then you can numerically compare version numbers. > > the 100 (a) and 10000 (b) can be adjusted for your needs. > > a must be bigger than the max number of patches > b must be bigger that the max numer of patches times the max numer of > minor versions. > > So this algorithm can not 4.194.299 > > Vincent > _______________________________________________ > fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org > http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal -- "there's nothing as inspirational for a hacker as a cat obscuring a bug by sitting in front of the monitor" - Boudewijn Rempt A.J. Venter Chief Software Architect OpenLab International www.getopenlab.com www.silentcoder.co.za +27 82 726 5103 _______________________________________________ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
