code: public static final Version parseVersion(String versionString) {
          require(versionString != null, "versionString is null");
          return parse(versionString, false);
      }
docs: Tries to parse the provided String as a semantic version. If the string does not
  conform to the semantic version specification, a {@link VersionFormatException}
  will be thrown.
  
  @param versionString The String to parse.
  @return The parsed version.
  @throws VersionFormatException If the String is no valid version
  @throws IllegalArgumentException If {@code versionString} is <code>null</code>.