Package MyBaseClass;

sub new
{
  my $class = shift;
  my $self = {};
  bless($self,$class);
  $self->_init();
  return $self;
}

sub _init
{
  my $self = shift;
  @{$self->{things}} = qw(thing_0.1 thing_0.2 thing_0.3 thing_11.0 thing_11.1);
  # etc,etc
  return $self;
}

# $a and $b don't seem to exist within this context
sub specialSort
{
  my $self = shift;
  my @aParts = split(/[_.]/, $a);
  my @bParts = split(/[_.]/, $b);
  return 1 if (int $a_parts[1] > int $b_parts[1] || ($a_parts[1] eq $b_parts[1] && (int $a_parts[2]) > (int $b_parts[2])));
  return -1 if (int $a_parts[1] < int $b_parts[1] || ($a_parts[1] eq $b_parts[1] && (int $a_parts[2]) < (int $b_parts[2])));          
  return 0 if ($a eq $b);
  die((caller(0))[3] . " LOGIC error.");
}

1;