CPUFreak91 Member Posts: 2337 From: Registered: 02-01-2005 |
Hey all, I got to thinking, and discovered that I really don't know what alpha, beta, etc testing is. And versions! So here I am calling my programs (XX) Version 0.2 and not really knowing much about versions and such! It shocked me to think that all this time, I didn't know! So, what's the trick to all this  ?------------------ |
Briant Member Posts: 742 From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada Registered: 01-20-2001 |
Really, it doesn't matter too much, and it's up to you. My employer does it as follows: For version numbering, this is common: ------------------ |
SSquared Member Posts: 654 From: Pacific Northwest Registered: 03-22-2005 |
I've never actually worked anywhere who does alpha releases, but here's my take. Alpha - Like BrianT said, it should resemble the final product. May only contain the major/large features. Many other features may be lacking and missing. Things can still change at this stage. File formats may change. Bitmaps/graphics are certainly not complete. Number of testers is small at this point. Beta - Feature-rich and getting close to final version. Full stability is not expected, but should still be rather stable. No one wants to test something which crashes every 5 minutes. Any missing feature or bug is usually noted. Number of testers increases. Another type is an early adopter release. We did this at one company I worked for and it was very successful. Early adopter releases gave customers the chance to play with a working version of the software. It gave them an early opportunity to begin writing software using our API set. By the time of the final release, the cutomers already had a deep understanding of the new product. They had already written code to take advantage of the upcoming product. On that note though, nothing is ever considered final and the final product may require a few coding changes. It's sort of between an alpha and beta and prepares a customer for what's coming up. Microsoft does this with their development envrionments. This gives developers the opportunity to begin writing software prior to the actual release. |
Klumsy Administrator Posts: 1061 From: Port Angeles, WA, USA Registered: 10-25-2001 |
your descriptions are good sadly though, the ideal you mentioned in beta, is more like service pack 2 or 3  ------------------ |
Goldrush13 Member Posts: 107 From: Registered: 02-27-2005 |
Now now klumsy, you wouldn't be hinting slanderous remarks to a particular complany now would you? |
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