title: Does PEP 0440 allow omitting the separator for development releases?
body: <p><a href="https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0440/" rel="nofollow">PEP 0440</a> includes the following two statements which seem to be contradictory:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Development releases allow a <code>.</code> , <code>-</code> , or a <code>_</code> separator as well as omitting the separator all together. The normal form of this is with the <code>.</code> separator. This allows versions such as <code>1.2-dev2</code> or <code>1.2dev2</code> which normalize to <code>1.2.dev2</code> .</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>and</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Note that <code>devN</code> and <code>postN</code> MUST always be preceded by a dot, even when used immediately following a numeric version (e.g. <code>1.0.dev456</code> , <code>1.0.post1</code> ).</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Is the 2nd statement wrong?  Is it allowed to omit the separator all together?  If so, what is the process for alerting the PEP author to correct the PEP?</p>