fix: use semver dot separator for beta pre-release versions (beta-X → beta.X)

[Copilot]

• Update package.json version from 12.0.0-beta-10 to 12.0.0-beta.10
• Update package-lock.json version (via npm install --package-lock-only with npm 10)
• Update .github/release-please/manifest.json so release-please proposes 12.0.0-beta.11 next
• Update CHANGELOG.md current entry header to use dot notation
• Update MAINTAINERS.md — fix beta example, add blockquote warning about dot-vs-dash for future maintainers, fix RC example from rc-1 to rc.1

Original prompt

---

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>🐛 Bug: beta versions should use semver-style dot numeric separator (instead of dash)</issue_title>
<issue_description>### Bug Report Checklist

• I have read and agree to Mocha's Code of Conduct and Contributing Guidelines
• I have searched for related issues and issues with the faq label, but none matched my issue.
• I have 'smoke tested' the code to be tested by running it outside the real test suite to get a better sense of whether the problem is in the code under test, my usage of Mocha, or Mocha itself.
• I want to provide a PR to resolve this

Expected

Using caret with a beta version should pick up newer beta.

Actual

12.0.0-beta-10 is NOT matched by "^12.0.0-beta-9 (or even "^12.0.0-beta-10" 🤯 )

Minimal, Complete and Verifiable Example

mkdir semver-behavior
cd semver-behavior
npm init -y
npm pkg set type=module
npm i semver
echo "import { gt } from 'semver'; console.log('12.0.0-beta-10 > 12.0.0-beta-9', gt('12.0.0-beta-10', '12.0.0-beta-9')); console.log('12.0.0-beta.10 > 12.0.0-beta.9', gt('12.0.0-beta.10', '12.0.0-beta.9'));" > main.js
node main.js

prints:

12.0.0-beta-10 > 12.0.0-beta-9 false
12.0.0-beta.10 > 12.0.0-beta.9 true

Versions

12.0.0-beta-*

Additional Info

semver, which is used by npm and many other packages, treats - differently from .

I believe it treats dot as a separator, parsing the numeric digits after it as a number, while it treats the dash as regular alphabet, sorting 10 before 9.

Neat one, isn't it?</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>use npm 10. make sure the next release proposed by release-please is 12.0.0-beta.11</agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

• Fixes 🐛 Bug: beta versions should use semver-style dot numeric separator (instead of dash) #5763

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[linux-foundation-easycla]

• ✅ login: mark-wiemer / name: Mark Wiemer (5bff8ef, 4978819, 6ad2a81)
• ❌ - login: @Copilot / name: copilot-swe-agent[bot] . The commit (842c0d5, 9175958, b383700) is not authorized under a signed CLA. Please click here to be authorized. For further assistance with EasyCLA, please submit a support request ticket.

[mark-wiemer]

@copilot also update MAINTAINERS.md to track this for the future

[Copilot]

@copilot also update MAINTAINERS.md to track this for the future

Done in b383700. Added a blockquote warning explaining that dot . must be used as the separator (not dash -) due to semver numeric ordering, and also fixed the RC transition example from rc-1 to rc.1 for consistency.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 88.84%. Comparing base (3481b1e) to head (4978819).
⚠️ Report is 3 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##             main    #5764   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   88.84%   88.84%           
=======================================
  Files          66       66           
  Lines        4771     4771           
  Branches      976      976           
=======================================
  Hits         4239     4239           
  Misses        532      532           

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