The current algorithm is complicated and broken.
First, it removes common prefixes, so that, for example, '1.5.8' and
'1.5.9' are compared numerically as 8 and 9. After that, '0's are
skipped, to that, for example, '1.5.09' can compare equal to '1.5.9'.
In a next step, removed digits are restored, so that
that '1.5.1134' and '1.5.1211' are compared as 1134 and 1211 and not
as 34 and 11.
However, the removal of '0's is done independently for both values, so
that a different number of '0's might be removed, while the undo is done
in sync, so that the same number of digits is 'restored'.
As a result, '1.101' compares less that '1.11':
a b
1.101 1.11 # original
01 1 # after removal of common prefix
1 1 # after removal of '0's
01 11 # after restoration of digits
Additionally, the code tries to sort digits after non-digit characters
but failed to miss the case, when only the second string starts with a
digit.
Rewrite algorithm from scratch.
The new algorithm advances through both strings comparing them at their
beginning
- if both strings start with a digit
- compare numerically
- if equal, skip over digits and loop
- otherwise if the first character is different, compare character values
- otherwise if both strings end, result is 0 (equal)
- otherwise, advance to next character and loop
We intentionally don't sort digits after non-digits, as the old code
tried, because this makes more sense for the case when we have a hex
string (e.g. from a git hash) as part of the version string.
To make the code more readable, the character pointers are dereferenced
multiple times and some conditionals are evaluated multiple times. We
can trust the compiler to optimize this away.
Comparing 'bee list --available' with the old and the new algorithm
produces the following differences:
firefox-9.0.1-0.x86_64 firefox-9.0.1-0.x86_64
firefox-10.0.2-0.x86_64 firefox-10.0.2-0.x86_64
firefox-102.0-0.x86_64 <
firefox-11.0-0.x86_64 firefox-11.0-0.x86_64
firefox-12.0-0.x86_64 firefox-12.0-0.x86_64
firefox-94.0.1-0.x86_64 firefox-94.0.1-0.x86_64
firefox-94.0.2-0.x86_64 firefox-94.0.2-0.x86_64
> firefox-102.0-0.x86_64
firefox_current-4-0.x86_64 firefox_current-4-0.x86_64
firefox_current-5-0.x86_64 firefox_current-5-0.x86_64
java-1.7.0_13-0.x86_64 java-1.7.0_13-0.x86_64
java-1.7.0_17-0.x86_64 java-1.7.0_17-0.x86_64
> java-1.8.0_11-0.x86_64
> java-1.8.0_45-0.x86_64
java-1.8.0_101-0.x86_64 java-1.8.0_101-0.x86_64
java-1.8.0_102-0.x86_64 java-1.8.0_102-0.x86_64
java-1.8.0_102-1.x86_64 java-1.8.0_102-1.x86_64
java-1.8.0_11-0.x86_64 <
java-1.8.0_45-0.x86_64 <
java-1.8.0_121-0.x86_64 java-1.8.0_121-0.x86_64
java-1.8.0_131-0.x86_64 java-1.8.0_131-0.x86_64
mxq-0.0_p106_8a0ad87-0.x86_64 mxq-0.0_p106_8a0ad87-0.x86_64
mxq-0.0_p107_eaf8146-0.x86_64 mxq-0.0_p107_eaf8146-0.x86_64
mxq-0.0_p108_f56522b-0.x86_64 <
mxq-0.0_p108_0b7afc1-0.x86_64 mxq-0.0_p108_0b7afc1-0.x86_64
mxq-0.0_p108_4e83c8d-0.x86_64 mxq-0.0_p108_4e83c8d-0.x86_64
mxq-0.0_p109_ed52e7f-0.x86_64 | mxq-0.0_p108_f56522b-0.x86_64
mxq-0.0_p109_621fea8-0.x86_64 mxq-0.0_p109_621fea8-0.x86_64
> mxq-0.0_p109_ed52e7f-0.x86_64
mxq-0.0_p110_baba367-0.x86_64 mxq-0.0_p110_baba367-0.x86_64
mxq-0.0_p111_38cc7db-0.x86_64 mxq-0.0_p111_38cc7db-0.x86_64
mxq-0.1.1_p1_4840161-0.x86_64 mxq-0.1.1_p1_4840161-0.x86_64
mxq-0.1.2_p0_d21c6ae-0.x86_64 mxq-0.1.2_p0_d21c6ae-0.x86_64
mxq-0.1.2_p1_efa8ec4-0.x86_64 <
mxq-0.1.2_p1_9ccc12f-0.x86_64 mxq-0.1.2_p1_9ccc12f-0.x86_64
> mxq-0.1.2_p1_efa8ec4-0.x86_64
mxq-0.1.3_p0_0c3032c-0.x86_64 mxq-0.1.3_p0_0c3032c-0.x86_64
mxq-0.1.4_p0_c936ba0-0.x86_64 mxq-0.1.4_p0_c936ba0-0.x86_64
mxstartup-2.9_p1_0e23fa8-0.x86_64 mxstartup-2.9_p1_0e23fa8-0.x86_64
mxstartup-2.9_p2_e915bc3-0.x86_64 mxstartup-2.9_p2_e915bc3-0.x86_64
mxstartup-2.9_p3_d919716-0.x86_64 <
mxstartup-2.9_p3_21347ab-0.x86_64 mxstartup-2.9_p3_21347ab-0.x86_64
> mxstartup-2.9_p3_d919716-0.x86_64
mxstartup-2.10_p0_d919716-0.x86_64 mxstartup-2.10_p0_d919716-0.x86_64
mxstartup-2.11_p0_4ee8fed-0.x86_64 mxstartup-2.11_p0_4ee8fed-0.x86_64