It's virtually the same in Python if you wrote it explicitly:

    def <=>(other)
        [major, minor, patch] <=> [other.major, other.minor, other.patch]
    end

vs:

    def __lt__(self, other):
        return (self.major, self.minor, self.patch) < (other.major, other.minor, other.patch)

Then use the `total_ordering` decorator to provide the remaining rich comparison methods.

That said, it's a little annoying Python didn't keep __cmp__ around since there's no direct replacement that's just as succinct and what I did above is a slight fib: you still may need to add __eq__() as well.