[Tutor] Logical Sorting

[Evan Klitzke]

Hi,

I am trying to sort a list of directories that correspond to kernel
sources under /usr/src/linux.  I wrote some code that gets a list like
this:
['linux-2.6.9-gentoo-r4', 'linux-2.6.16-gentoo-r11/', 'linux-2.6.16-gentoo-r7/']

When I sort the list, I want it to go from oldest (lowest version) to
newest, so the sorted list should look like this:
['linux-2.6.9-gentoo-r4', 'linux-2.6.16-gentoo-r7/', 'linux-2.6.16-gentoo-r11/']

The problem is that since the built in string comparisons compare
character by character, so the sort puts 2.6.16 before 2.6.9, and -r11
before -r7.  This is obviously not what I want.  My question is: are
there any modules or built in methods that will do a logical sort on a
list like this, and sort it the way I want, or will I have to write my
own sorting function?

-- Evan Klitzke

P.S. I know that the simplest way is just to use ls to sort by time,
but it is not necessarily true that older kernel versions have an
older time stamp :-)