What mean ALPHA and BETA version?

[Marek Kurowski]

Yo!

What mean when program is ALPHA or BETA version?

I suppose it is not release version of program, but I don't know what it
exactly mean.
What it mean in your opinion?

Marek Kurowski

 

[Emmanuel Delahaye]

Marek Kurowski wrote on 10/08/04 :

What mean when program is ALPHA or BETA version?

How is this a C-question ?

 

[Joona I Palaste]

Yo!

What mean when program is ALPHA or BETA version?

I suppose it is not release version of program, but I don't know what it
exactly mean.
What it mean in your opinion?

Marek Kurowski

This has nothing to do with C, but more with programming in general.
IMHO an alpha version is one that has only been tested by the original
programmers, and a beta version is one that has been tested by a
dedicated testing team (different from the original programmers), but
has not been officially released to the public.

 

[E. Robert Tisdale]

Marek Kurowski scribbled the following:

It doesn't have an exact universal meaning.

This has nothing to do with C, but more with programming in general.
IMHO an alpha version is one that has only been tested by the original
programmers, and a beta version is one that has been tested
by a dedicated testing team (different from the original programmers)
but has not been officially released to the public.

Close.

Alpha is the development version of the software.
Once the authors have settled upon a User Interface and/or API
and completed testing, they can prepare a Beta version
to release to a wider community of users and/or programmers for testing.

 

[Malcolm]

What mean when program is ALPHA or BETA version?

The terms don't have a C-specific meaning. Alpha is feature complete whilst
beta is considered by the programmers to be bug-free (though often
undetected bugs will remain, hence "beta-testing").
Post to comp.programming for a fuller discussion.

 

[Alan Balmer]

This has nothing to do with C, but more with programming in general.
IMHO an alpha version is one that has only been tested by the original
programmers, and a beta version is one that has been tested by a
dedicated testing team (different from the original programmers), but
has not been officially released to the public.

For most (I believe) companies here in the US, Beta indicates a
version which is released to selected customers for testing in the
field. This acknowledges the fact that the best system test is
actually using the product for production.

I don't know whether Alpha has a widely accepted meaning, but I've
seen it used for field testing of a product which is known to be still
incomplete or otherwise deficient.

 

[Gordon Burditt]

What mean when program is ALPHA or BETA version?

I suppose it is not release version of program, but I don't know what it
exactly mean.
What it mean in your opinion?

ALPHA and BETA are used to describe how stable and how complete a
version is. A program goes through several stages:

marketing
coding
design

unfortunately, IN THAT ORDER.

A program is often not distributed to the public until after it has
been run at least once without serious crashing (but certain large
software companies don't let this interfere with schedules). For
GUI programs, this means starting the program, then clicking on
FILE > Quit, without major hard disk trashing. This is sometimes
called the pre-prototype stage. Design of the program has likely
not started yet. A pre-prototype version of an automobile would
be a large pile of bolts, sheet metal, and other parts.

After a program has been through several major versions and about
50% of the design is complete (but not necessarily reflected in the
code yet), a program may be said to have ALPHA status. It should
not be considered a reliable program. An alpha version of an
automobile would possibly catch fire before you start the engine
or put gas in it, but it looks like an automobile and you can push
it like an automobile if you wear fire-retardant clothing.

After more development and the design is nearly complete, a program
may be said to have BETA status. This is a program you can depend
on a bit more, although it still should not be relied on for serious
work. A beta version of an automobile would possibly catch fire
but only AFTER you both put gas in it AND start the engine.

Internet Explorer version 65535.7.87.21.938374 might reach ALPHA
status, but not until the Y10K problem is addressed (since it
likely won't be released until after that time).

Gordon L. Burditt

 

[Eric Sosman]

Yo!

What mean when program is ALPHA or BETA version?

I suppose it is not release version of program, but I don't know what it
exactly mean.
What it mean in your opinion?

alpha, adj. (Of a version) being the first (and
invariably the best) of a series expected to converge
to a usable product.

Owing, inter alia, to the sad decline in classical
language skills, the series never progresses to the
Johannine limit of perfection at omega. Indeed,
versions beyond gamma are rarely encountered since
Marketing traditionally loses patience with QA and
ships the beta.

-- Stan Kelly-Bootle, "The Computer Contradictionary"

 

[Mabden]

alpha, adj. (Of a version) being the first (and
invariably the best) of a series expected to converge
to a usable product.

If you are referring to Alpha wolf, yes. The commander of the pack, seconded
by the Alpha bitch. The poor Omega wolf is picked on even by the puppies and
really only sticks to the group because it's better to have a pack than
starve and die.

But in programming, Alpha is merely the first word in the Alpha-Bet.

Alpha is the programmer's idea of what the finished product should be and
tested to work as desired.

Beta is given to others, who invariably do things that cause the programmer
to say, "But..., no one would DO that!" and "Why did you hit Enter key while
you were holding down the ESC key?" ("Well, my stapler was leaning on
it...") and "It said hit "any key", so I just pushed them all..."

Once the programmer reworks his program to account for idiots, it becomes
Alpha again.

Users. Can't live with them... can't just shoot them.

 

[Dan Pop]

What mean when program is ALPHA or BETA version?

From a practical point of view, alpha versions are for the usage of the
developers only, while beta versions are for the testers. Far too often,
vendors release beta versions as production versions, relying on their
customers to act as testers, on their time and money.

Before releasing Windows 95, Microsoft had a public beta testing programme
that allowed any interested volunteer to get involved in the testing of
the new product. Later versions were beta tested by the paying customers.

Dan