|
In software engineering, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. Each major version of a product usually goes through a stage when new features are added (alpha stage), then a stage when it is actively debugged (beta stage), and finally a stage when all important bugs have been removed (stable stage). Intermediate stages may also be recognized. The stages may be formally announced and regulated by the product's developers, but sometimes the terms are used informally to describe the state of a product. Software engineering (SE) is the profession, practiced by software engineers, concerned with creating and maintaining software applications by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, engineering and other fields. ...
Generally, a version is a checkpoint at which a particular thing or idea varies from its previous state or condition. ...
Code names are sometimes assigned to products that are prior to the release. A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. ...
Pre-Alpha
Sometimes a build known as pre-alpha is issued, before the release of alpha or beta. In contrast to alpha and beta versions, the pre-alpha is usually not "feature complete"; that is, it is at the stage where designers are still wondering about what functionalities the product should have. Such builds can also be called development releases or nightly builds.
Alpha An alpha version or alpha release usually represents the first feature complete version of a computer program or other product, likely to be unstable but useful for demonstrating internally and to select customers. Some developers refer to this stage as a preview, as a technical preview or as an early access. Often, this stage begins when the developers announce a feature freeze on the product, indicating that no more features will be added to this version of the product, only bugs will be removed. A computer program (often simply called a program) is an example of computer software that prescribes the actions (computations) that are to be carried out by a computer. ...
Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet. Alpha (uppercase Α, lowercase α) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. ...
Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...
Beta The beta version of a product still awaits full debugging or full implementation of all its functionality, but satisfies a majority of the requirements. Beta versions (or just betas) stand at an intermediate step in the full development cycle. Developers release them to a group of beta testers (or, sometimes, to the general public) for a user test. The testers report any bugs that they found, features they would like to see in the final version, etc. When a beta becomes available to the general public it often becomes used almost as widely as the finished product (when developers subsequently complete that product). Usually developers of freeware or open-source betas release them to the general public while proprietary betas go to a relatively small group of testers. Recipients of highly proprietary betas may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. In software engineering, a requirement is a description of what a system should do. ...
This article is about freeware which is available gratis. ...
Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ...
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or confidential disclosure agreement (CDA) is a legal contract between two parties which outlines confidential materials the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict from generalized use. ...
Since this is the second major stage in the development cycle, following the alpha stage, it is named after the Greek letter beta, the second letter in the Greek alphabet. Beta (upper case Β, lower case β) is the 2nd letter of the Greek alphabet. ...
Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...
In February 2005, Slashdot ran an article about the recent phenomenonon of a beta version often staying for years and being used as if it were in production-level. [1] (http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/13/0234221&tid=185&tid=156) 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Ongoing events • Iraqi legislative election • Bill C-38 (Canada gay marriage) • Tsunami relief Upcoming events • March 11: Red Nose Day 2005 in the UK. Deaths in February • 26 – Jef Raskin • 25 – Hugh Nibley • 25 – Peter Benenson • 21...
Slashdot (frequently abbreviated online as /.) is a popular website, primarily consisting of short summaries of stories on other websites with links to the stories, and provisions for readers to comment on the story. ...
Release candidate The term release candidate can refer to a final product, ready to release unless fatal bugs emerge. In this stage, the product features all designed functionalities and no known showstopper class bugs. Microsoft Corporation often uses the term release candidate. Other terms include gamma, (and occasionally also delta, and perhaps even more Greek letters) for versions that are substantially complete, but still under test, and omega for final testing of versions that are believed to be bug-free, and may go into production at any time. Gamma, delta, and omega are, respectively, the third, fourth, and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Some users disparagingly refer to release candidates and even final "point oh" releases as "gamma test" software, suggesting that the developer has chosen to use its customers to test software that is not truly ready for general release. Release may refer to multiple things: in marketing: issuing a product for sale or public showing (especially a music release or a film release). ...
A computer bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from working correctly or produces an incorrect result. ...
In software development, a showstopper is a computer bug which prevents a project from going forward, as opposed to a minor bug which can be documented and coped with. ...
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), (founded 1975), headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, is the worlds largest software company (with over 50,000 employees in various countries, as of May 2004). ...
Gamma (upper case Γ, lower case γ) is the 3rd letter of the Greek alphabet. ...
Delta can signify: Δ or δ, a letter of the Greek alphabet. ...
Omega (Ω ω) (literally, big O) is the 24th and last letter of the Greek alphabet. ...
Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...
Gold/Release The gold or release version of a product is the final version of particular product. It is typically almost identical to the final release candidate, with only any last-minute bugs fixed. In commercial software releases, this version may also be signed (used to allow end-users to verify that code has not been modified since the release).
The term gold anecdotally refers to the use of "gold master disks" which were used to send the final version to manufacturers (who use the gold master to create the mass-produced retail copies.) It may, in this context, be a hold-over from music production.
Microsoft and others use the term "RTM" (Release to Manufacturing) to refer to this version (as in, "Build 2600 is the Windows XP RTM release"). Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), (founded 1975), headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, is the worlds largest software company (with over 50,000 employees in various countries, as of May 2004). ...
Stable/Unstable In open source programming, version numbers or the terms stable and unstable commonly distinguish the stage of development. In the Linux kernel, version numbers take the form of three numbers, separated by a period character or "point". An even second number represents a stable release and an odd second number represents an unstable release. The practice of using even and odd numbers to indicate the stability of a release has featured in many other open source projects. Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ...
The Linux mascot Tux created by Larry Ewing. ...
In mathematics, the term even is used in several senses: an integer is called even if it is divisible by two; see even and odd numbers a function f defined on the real numbers is called even if f(x) = f(−x) for all x; see even and odd functions...
Odd has several meanings. ...
In mathematics, any integer (whole number) is either even or odd. ...
See also Generally, a version is a checkpoint at which a particular thing or idea varies from its previous state or condition. ...
External link |
Feeds |
Contact