Alpha, Beta, Version Info

[denniswrenn]

What is alpha, what is beta and what is gamma?

I once heard beta was the public release of something before completed development, and alpha was interneal for the developing company or something....

don't know what gamma is though.

and how do you start a version?

lets say I develope a program.... is it version 1, or version .1, or .01 ?????

:confused:

Thanks,
Dennis

[parksie]

Alpha - in house, not to be released
Beta - to be released under controlled conditions for feedback
Gamma - public beta with optional feedback

When starting, you'd usually have version 0.01, and move through to the Gold (first full) version of your software at 1.0.0 :)

Sometimes you would put a, b, or g after the version number to denote what type it is.

Thanks... :D

but I don't understand the feedback part.... :confused:

[parksie]

Under the beta stage of development, participants in the programme should send feedback of usage patterns, anything that goes wrong, things they think should be changed.

Although a lot of the time this doesn't happen :)

I use this format for my software

Alpha - Confined to my room!!
Beta - That I give out for testing!!
Sigma - Public Release

do they use any other greek letters... like delta?

[Active]

Yes...
The last release version of a software before
it joins the exclusive club of dinosaurs is called
a zeta version.

The last version of windows 3.1 was called
windows 3.1 zeta version.

[HarryW]

Hate to be a pedant (well not really ;)) but the last letter of the greek alphabet is omega. Zeta is the sixth letter.

[parksie]

Hehe yep. Christians may recognise the phrase "He is Alpha and Omega" ;)

[Active]

I know the greek last letter is omega...

But from hearsay i remember it was zeta... and not omega. Guess...it's just rumour.

[parksie]

If you took it in the english alphabet order, it would be, which is probably what whoever you heard it from thought.

[HarryW]

Alpha beta gamma delta epsilon zeta eta theta kappa lambda mu nu omicron pi rho ..... I know the first few but I get to about the middle and get the order wrong :) I know omega is last though. Up to about lambda I'm pretty sure the above is correct.

[Active]

Here is the complete list

Alpha
beta
gamma
delta
epsilon
zeta
eta
theta
iota
kappa
lambda
mu
nu
xi
omicron
pi
rho
sigma
tau
upsilon
phi
chi
psi
omega

---

[HarryW]

Damn, I forgot iota.

and xi

[HarryW]

Yeah but I said I was pretty sure up to about lambda... and I missed out iota, which is before lambda.

Never mind, well done for trying...

*Behemoth sticks a gold star next to HarryWs name on the list above teachers desk*

[HarryW]

*Proud*

[parksie]

We all know what comes before a fall :rolleyes:

[barrk]

Yep...beer!

[parksie]

Lots of it... ;)