chapter 4 on version numbering doesn't mention ~ trick

[Hamish Moffatt <hamish@debian.org>]

Chapter 4 of policy 3.5.9.0 (version numbering) doesn't mention dpkg's
magic ~ character in version strings, which was implemented in June 2002
(according to dpkg's changelog.Debian.gz.)

In fact I couldn't find a single package in unstable which is using it,
though I still see packages using the old ugly tricks like Samba's
2.99+3.00alpha23 ..

The ~ character deliberately has low sorting order, so 3.00~alpha23 <
3.00.

Am I free to use it?

Please CC me as I'm not subscribed (M-F-T is set correctly).

Thanks,
Hamish
-- 
Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <hamish@debian.org> <hamish@cloud.net.au>