Perl Monks--I come seeking enlightenment. I've run into this problem before and have eventually given up but this time I'm going to the mountain.

I'm using a straightforward sort sub to sort various package versions out of a Maven repository like this:

sub compare_dotted_decimal { #----------------------------------------

    my @a = $a =~ /(\d+)\.(\d+)\.*(\d*)\.*(\d*)\.*(\d*)/;
    my @b = $b =~ /(\d+)\.(\d+)\.*(\d*)\.*(\d*)\.*(\d*)/;
    $b[0] <=> $a[0] || $b[1] <=> $a[1] || $b[2] <=> $a[2] || $b[3] <=>
+ $a[3] || $b[4] <=> $a[4];

} #========================================= compare_dotted_decimal ==
[download]

This works fine. However I'd like to reuse it to compare only two values to see if the one I have is greater. It seems to me this could be called to return a -1,0,1 just like a comparison operator but everything I've tried fails to return anything. Any ideas on how to call a sort sub like a regular one?