Alpha Software

[Richard Thorpe]

I noticed for the first time a discussion of "wonders" and "glitches" of alpha software for the first time on the reflector.  Why?

R Thorpe AC9D
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[KK7P]

> I noticed for the first time a discussion of "wonders" and "glitches" of alpha software for the first time on the reflector.  Why?
>  

Occasionally an alpha tester will inadvertently copy the reflector
rather than the alpha testers or firmware developers.

You can be sure that when firmware is released as Beta, it has undergone
a fair amount of testing!

73,

Lyle KK7P
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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Richard,

Normally, the reflector does not see the testing results of Alpha
firmware.  In this particular case, the alpha level firmware was sent to
a number of folks who requested it, and some of them reported their
observations on the reflector.
Normally, the alpha firmware is available to the Firmware Field Test
group, and the reports and observations (and opinions) are handled on a
private email reflector.  In this particular case, several K3 users were
interested in the latest firmware (and Elecraft was interested in their
feedback), but those users reported their findings on the Elecraft
reflector rather than privately to Wayne and Eric.

Sorry for your confusion, but it is all good info in the field of
firmware development to improve your K3 performance (usability,
operations, etc.).

Consider it a "work in progress".  If you are interested in joining the
group testing the "latest and greatest", a note to Wayne or Eric may get
you included.  There is always room for more testing with a greater
variety of K3 configurations.

73,
Don W3FPR

Richard Thorpe wrote:
> I noticed for the first time a discussion of "wonders" and "glitches" of alpha software for the first time on the reflector.  Why?
>
> R Thorpe AC9D
>
>  
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[lstavenhagen]

I have to agree that the K3 FW betas are unlike the typical betas - the ones I've tried are cleaner than most companies' release versions of their software hi hi. I do SW test development for a living and you wouldn't believe the broken stuff I have had to deal with, even when it's called RC and GA (RC = release candidate, GA = general availability/final release).

Part of that has to do with the scale of the project, usually the bigger it is and the more people that are working on it, the more chaotic the project and the more broken the product is (MS's operating systems are extreme examples here). The K3 FW strikes me as a pretty tight ship mostly driven by Wayne....

73,
LS
W5QD