This will never match and is completly wrong as you mixed up $var1 and $var2.

Um, no.

C:\parrot>p1
[0] Perl> $var1 = '1.1.2'; $var2 = '1.1'; 
if( index( $var1, $var2 ) == 0 ) { print "matches" } 
else { print "Doesn't match" };;
matches

[0] Perl> $var1 = '1.1.2'; $var2 = '1.1'; 
if( index( $var2, $var1 ) == 0 ) { print "matches" } 
else { print "Doesn't match" };;
Doesn't match
[download]

but this will still be wrong because

$var2='1.11.2';
$var1='1.1';
[download]

would give you a false match

That's a good catch though. It's also easily fixed:

[0] Perl> $var1 = '1.11.2'; $var2 = '1.1'; 
if( index( $var1, "$var2." ) == 0 ) { print "matches" } 
else { print "Doesn't match" };;
Doesn't match
[download]