The JNLP specification has been changed to reflect how numeric version elements were compared against non-numeric version elements. Previous to the change, version elements were compared lexicographically by ASCII value. With Java 9 and this JNLP specification change, elements are still compared lexicographically by ASCII value. The change is evident when the two strings have different lengths. In new comparisons, the shorter string will be padded with leading zeros to match the length of the longer string.
Lexicographical comparisons use a mathematical model that is based on alphabetical order.
