I use Jenkins to build releases of software with multiple dependencies and, some times, need to do things differently depending on a dependency's version...

Some versions can be compared as numbers, but not all. It would be very useful to be able to compare things like 1.3 against 1.2.1.1, or 1.3a vs. 1.3b.

Python's LooseVersion can be used as a reference. Thank you!