Bug#246961: Surprising version comparison result

[Thomas Hood <jdthood@yahoo.co.uk>]

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.10.21
Severity: normal

$ dpkg --compare-versions 1.1 lt 11 && echo yes
yes
$ dpkg --compare-versions 1.a lt 1a && echo yes
$ dpkg --compare-versions 1a lt 1.a && echo yes
yes

Why is version 1a less than 1.a?

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (800, 'testing'), (700, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.25
Locale: LANG=en_IE@euro, LC_CTYPE=en_IE@euro

Versions of packages dpkg depends on:
ii  dselect                     1.10.20      a user tool to manage Debian packa
ii  libc6                       2.3.2.ds1-12 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an

-- no debconf information