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Maybe I have a problem with my test code...
--------------------
import re
def test_re(out_string):
 result = re.search('(\d+\.\d+(\.(\d+))?([ab](\d+))?)', out_string)
 print '--- msg00622 ---'
 print result.group(1)
 print result.group(2)
 print result.group(3)
 print result.group(4)
 print
if __name__ == '__main__': 
 out_string = '2.18.50.20080523'
 test_re(out_string)
 out_string = '1.2.3a'
 test_re(out_string)
 out_string = '2.18.50a.20080523'
 test_re(out_string)
Results...
--- msg00622 ---
2.18.50
.50
50
None
--- msg00622 ---
1.2.3
.3
3
None
--- msg00622 ---
2.18.50
.50
50
None
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I would expect GNU to have a standard for version strings so this
doesn't happen to EVERYONE when they deviate from the expected. 
A quick check in Google returned the following links for other
packages... 
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/tividd/td/ITCM/SC23-4712-01/en_US/HTML/cmm
st19.htm
http://java.sun.com/j2se/versioning_naming.html
http://www.osgi.org/javadoc/r4/org/osgi/framework/Version.html
Given that, I think I prefer 1 to 2.