NAME

version::AlphaBeta - Use alphanumeric version objects

SYNOPSIS

  use version::AlphaBeta;
  $VERSION = new version::AlphaBeta "v1.2b";

ABSTRACT

  Derived class of version objects which permits use of specific
  alphanumeric version objects, patterned after the version strings
  used by many open source programs, like Mozilla.

DESCRIPTION

The base version objects only permit a sequence of numeric values to be used, which is not how some software chooses to label their version strings. This module permits a specific sequence of alpha, beta, release candidate, release, and patch versions to be specified instead of strictly numeric versions. Sorted in increasing order:

  Version     Meaning
  1.3a        1.3 alpha release
  1.3b        1.3 beta release
  1.3b2       1.3 second beta release
  1.3rc       1.3 release candidate
  1.3rc2      1.3 second release candidate
  1.3         1.3 final release
  1.3p1       1.3 first patch release

This module can be used as a basis for other subclasses of version objects. The global hash object %IB defines the acceptable non-numeric version parameters:

  %IB = (
      'a' => 1,
      'b' => 2,
      'rc'=> 3,
      ''  => 4,
      'pl'=> 5
  );

which, if present at all, must be located in the third subversion.

OBJECT METHODS

This module provides two additional logical methods, apart from those already exported by the base version class.

is_alpha
Replacing the base method by the same name, this will return true only if the version has an 'a' in the third position, i.e.
```
  $VERSION = new version::AlphaBeta "1.3a1";
  print $VERSION->is_alpha; # prints 1
```

is_beta
A new method which supplements $obj->is_alpha:

  $VERSION = new version::AlphaBeta "1.3b3";
  print $VERSION->is_alpha; # prints 0
  print $VERSION->is_beta; # prints 1

EXPORT

None by default.

HISTORY

01
Original version; created by h2xs 1.22 with options

  --use-new-tests
        -b
        5.6.0
        -CXfn
        version::AlphaBeta

AUTHOR

John Peacock, <jpeacock@rowman.com

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

version::AlphaBeta - Use alphanumeric version objects