diff -ru ../old/jde-2.3.5/lisp/jde-util.el ./lisp/jde-util.el
--- ../old/jde-2.3.5/lisp/jde-util.el	Fri Dec 17 04:29:37 2004
+++ ./lisp/jde-util.el	Tue Apr 11 03:27:47 2006
@@ -90,6 +90,13 @@
 	      (aset newstr i tochar)))
 	newstr)))
 
+(if (not (fboundp 'replace-in-string))
+    (defun replace-in-string  (string regexp newtext &optional literal)
+      "Replace REGEXP with NEWTEXT in STRIng."
+      (if (string-match regexp string)
+	  (replace-match newtext nil nil string)
+	string)))
+
 (defun jde-get-line-at-point (&optional pos)
   "Get the number of the line at point."
   (let* ((point (or pos (point)))
diff -ru ../old/jde-2.3.5/lisp/jde.el ./lisp/jde.el
--- ../old/jde-2.3.5/lisp/jde.el	Fri Dec 17 04:29:35 2004
+++ ./lisp/jde.el	Tue Apr 11 03:27:04 2006
@@ -998,17 +998,16 @@
 
 (defun jde-earlier-versionp (ver1 ver2) 
   "Return non-nil if VER1 is earlier than VER2"
-  (let ((ver1-betap (string-match "beta" ver1))
-        (ver2-betap (string-match "beta" ver2)))
-    (if (or (and ver1-betap ver2-betap)
-            (and (not ver1-betap) (not ver2-betap)))
-        (string< ver1 ver2)
-      (if ver1-betap
-          (progn
-            (or (string= ver2 (substring ver1  0 ver1-betap))
-                (string< (substring ver1 0 ver1-betap) ver2)))
-          (progn
-            (string< ver1 (substring ver2 0 ver2-betap)))))))
+  (let ((ver1n (replace-in-string ver1 "beta" "zb"))
+	(ver2n (replace-in-string ver2 "beta" "zb")))
+    (setq ver1n (replace-in-string ver1n "pre" "zp"))
+    (setq ver2n (replace-in-string ver2n "pre" "zp"))
+    (if (string-match "z" ver1n)
+	(unless (string-match "z" ver2n)
+	  (setq ver2n (concat ver2n "zz")))
+      (if (string-match "z" ver2n)
+	  (setq ver1n (concat ver1n "zz"))))
+    (string< ver1n ver2n)))
       
 (defcustom jde-log-max 500
   "*Maximum number of lines to keep in the JDE log buffer.