I would welcome a restructuring of the version comparison protocol along the lines that Didier suggests: make sure all the components of the protocol are properly handled by generic functions, and allow system developers and maintainers to manage their own version comparison logic should they so choose.
Now: a request for management purposes: Didier, would you be so kind as to describe the proposal (I think cut and paste out of your earlier emails would do admirably) in a ticket on launchpad.net?
Right now we are juggling altogether too many simultaneous suggestions for improvement that are candidates for 3.2. This has nothing to do with the many admirable suggestions, but rather has to do with issues getting 3.1.5 tested and debugged on Windows. Neither Faré nor I have the facilities to do this testing, so testing is slow, as is repairing bugs that arise.
I would like to be able to come back to improvements for 3.2 as soon as the Windows problems can be eliminated and 3.1.5 finally released.
Thank you, Robert