Since icu provides no way to set the soname version, we abuse the
LIB_EXT_ORDER=  pair in the icupkg.inc file (produced by pkgdataMakefile files:
Wrt. the original source, only the first character is used to decide, whether
the 'so' extension of generated libfilenames gets prefixed with a '.' (yes, if
LIB_EXT_ORDER starts with a dot). All other characters are paperweight. This
patch utilizes them by using all digits after the dot as so version number. So
LIB_EXT_ORDER=.7 is, what we would use to get -h libicudata.so.7 behavior. We 
keep the original versioning scheme for the real file, i.e.
$libname.so.$fullversion - easier for people to see, what ICU version they use.
--- ./source/tools/pkgdata/pkgdata.cpp.orig	Fri Mar 27 22:10:54 2015
+++ ./source/tools/pkgdata/pkgdata.cpp	Thu Jul 30 10:52:46 2015
@@ -242,8 +242,16 @@
     "Add package to all file names if not present",
     "Library name to build (if different than package name)",
     "Quite mode. (e.g. Do not output a readme file for static libraries)",
+#ifdef BUILD_DATA_WITHOUT_ASSEMBLY
     "Build the data without assembly code",
-    "Build PDS dataset (zOS build only)"
+#else
+    "Build the data without assembly code (ignored on this platform)",
+#endif
+#if U_PLATFORM == U_PF_OS390
+    "Build PDS dataset on zOS"
+#else
+    "Build PDS dataset on zOS (ignored on this platform)"
+#endif
 };
 
 const char  *progname = "PKGDATA";
@@ -383,17 +391,12 @@
       o.quiet = FALSE;
     }
 
-    if(options[PDS_BUILD].doesOccur) {
+    o.pdsbuild = FALSE;
 #if U_PLATFORM == U_PF_OS390
+    if(options[PDS_BUILD].doesOccur) {
       o.pdsbuild = TRUE;
-#else
-      o.pdsbuild = FALSE;
-      fprintf(stdout, "Warning: You are using the -z option which only works on z/OS.\n");
-
-#endif
-    } else {
-      o.pdsbuild = FALSE;
     }
+#endif
 
     o.verbose   = options[VERBOSE].doesOccur;
 
@@ -444,14 +447,11 @@
     }
 
     o.withoutAssembly = FALSE;
+#ifdef BUILD_DATA_WITHOUT_ASSEMBLY
     if (options[WITHOUT_ASSEMBLY].doesOccur) {
-#ifndef BUILD_DATA_WITHOUT_ASSEMBLY
-        fprintf(stdout, "Warning: You are using the option to build without assembly code which is not supported on this platform.\n");
-        fprintf(stdout, "Warning: This option will be ignored.\n");
-#else
         o.withoutAssembly = TRUE;
-#endif
     }
+#endif
 
     /* OK options are set up. Now the file lists. */
     tail = NULL;
@@ -636,7 +636,21 @@
 
 #if !defined(WINDOWS_WITH_MSVC) || defined(USING_CYGWIN)
             /* Get the version major number. */
-            if (o->version != NULL) {
+			if (pkgDataFlags[LIB_EXT_ORDER][0] != '\0') {
+				/* the first char is expected to be a dot */
+				for (uint32_t i = 0;i < sizeof(version_major);i++) {
+					char c = pkgDataFlags[LIB_EXT_ORDER][i+1];
+					if (c < '0' || c > '9') {
+						if (i == 0) {
+							version_major[i] = '0';
+							i++;
+						}
+						version_major[i] = '\0';
+						break;
+					}
+					version_major[i] = c;
+				}
+			} else if (o->version != NULL) {
                 for (uint32_t i = 0;i < sizeof(version_major);i++) {
                     if (o->version[i] == '.') {
                         version_major[i] = 0;
@@ -650,6 +664,7 @@
                     fprintf(stdout, "Warning: Providing a revision number with the -r option is recommended when packaging data in the current mode.\n");
                 }
             }
+			version_major[sizeof(version_major)-1] = '\0';
 
 #if U_PLATFORM != U_PF_OS400
             /* Certain platforms have different library extension ordering. (e.g. libicudata.##.so vs libicudata.so.##)
@@ -729,9 +744,6 @@
                 if (o->withoutAssembly) {
 #ifdef BUILD_DATA_WITHOUT_ASSEMBLY
                     result = pkg_createWithoutAssemblyCode(o, targetDir, mode);
-#else
-                    /* This error should not occur. */
-                    fprintf(stderr, "Error- BUILD_DATA_WITHOUT_ASSEMBLY is not defined. Internal error.\n");
 #endif
                 } else {
 #ifdef CAN_WRITE_OBJ_CODE