add IPython.version_info

always-comparable tuple for IPython versions

Note that types for each slot must never differ, due to Python 3 breaking loose comparisons (0 is used for base micro, never '')

IPython/__init__.py

@@ -57,6 +57,7 b' for author, email in release.authors.itervalues():'
     __author__ += author + ' <' + email + '>\n'
 __license__  = release.license
 __version__  = release.version
+version_info = release.version_info
 
 def embed_kernel(module=None, local_ns=None, **kwargs):
     """Embed and start an IPython kernel in a given scope.

IPython/core/release.py

@@ -21,7 +21,7 b" name = 'ipython'"
 # version
 _version_major = 0
 _version_minor = 14
-_version_micro = ''  # use '' for first of series, number for 1 and above
+_version_micro = 0  # use 0 for first of series, number for 1 and above
 _version_extra = 'dev'
 #_version_extra = 'rc1'
 # _version_extra = ''  # Uncomment this for full releases
@@ -36,6 +36,7 b' if _version_extra:'
 __version__ = '.'.join(map(str, _ver))
 
 version = __version__  # backwards compatibility name
+version_info = (_version_major, _version_minor, _version_micro, _version_extra)
 
 description = "IPython: Productive Interactive Computing"