#Workbench 2.0
8 messages in this thread
RE: "Effectively, developers are forced to support Commodore's unsupported,
unreleased software."
Same thing holds true with Apple in the Mac realm. One of my favorite
developers was hung out to dry by a very last minute _unannounced_ System 7
change.
Perhaps a related problem is that developers are typically lousy beta
testers. I'm told it's because developers tend to run with "safe" set-ups,
avoiding inits and what-nots that might conflict and crash their systems,
but I don't actually know this. It seems developers are too crash-weary to
be good beta testers!
The proof is always in the pudding and end users usually find plenty of
things to thoroughly embarrass the developers who usually double as beta
testers. When end users discover the bugs (usually almost overnight from
the time they first begin using the programs) and tell the beta testers how
to reproduce them, the squirming begins. The excuses are often quite
creative <g>.
FWIW, —GeM
Jim
You're certainly right about developers making lousy beta-testers!
Unfortunately, many software houses do just that … and, as you say, as
soon as the product goes onto the market, the end-users find the software
falls apart overnight.
I have been beta testing for over 12 years, almost in a `professional'
capacity
.. I am currently beta-testing a couple of commercial products, and have
tested (and continue to test) several major products, including
SuperbasePro4.
I am not a software developer as such, although I do know the systems
pretty well and do some programming (another must for a beta-tester, since
a beta-tester should be capable of pinning down approximately where the
problem is) … but I _do_ know how to coax maximum bugs out of the
software (give me just about any software, and I will make it fall over
<grin>).
Sadly, there are software authors (both commercial and PD/FD) who take bug
reports as a personal criticism. They will refuse to
acknowledge/investigate a bug that they can't reproduce or scream that you
shouldn't be doing things they way you are doing them or argue that what
you saw just cannot happen.
Personally, I enjoy beta-testing … I am usually not happy unless I can
report at least 100 bugs in the first 4 weeks of testing and I have managed
to do that in nearly all cases! But the relationship between beta-tester
and software house is one which is precious … a dialogue is necessary at
all times, and respect is needed on both sides … and a beta-testers views
should be taken very seriously indeed, especially on matters relating to
the user-interface since developers and programmers alike rarely understand
what is `best' for the user community (I'm not saying beta-testers _do_ …
it's just that they understand the problems of a user that much better).
Sorry, seems like you touched on one of my pet subjects 🙂
Mike (Whapping from the UK)
RE: "Sorry, seems like you touched on one of my pet subjects :-)"
The only thing out of place in your message was the above, in my
opinion. Mike, either your assessment of the situation is correct or we
both missed something somewhere. My perspective parallels yours, or at
least what I know of yours so far.
Developers so desperately believe and want their software to be great
that what they really want to hear from beta testers is praise and nothing
more. That sets the stage for a very strange and strained relationship. I
personally know one developer who drops his beta testers if they find much
faust with his "baby."
Glad you chimed in, —GeM
Yes, developers are lousy beta testers. There's a few people who don't
have ordinary lifestyles or social lives, who do nothing but twiddle and
tweak the latest obscure modification that's in the latest upload from CBM,
but there's far many more developers who can't bother with that. Instead,
they research and test up to and no further than the bugs that plague their
own products. Commodore doesn't send out operating system betas to *users*
as far as I know, except for the exceptional levels of piracy, users might
never see preliminary OSes. However, with the A3000, there are many
different revisions of 2.0 out there, and everyone thinks they've got a
stable version. Or an unstable version, as the case may be…
Apple, on the other hand, does use non-developers as beta testers.
We'll have to Applaud that, I guess.
FWIW, —GeM
RE: "Apple, on the other hand, does use non-developers as beta-testers."
I think I should point out that almost anyone can apply for software
developer status. Many of the people you have been talking to have that
status. It doesn't cost much, $50 per year ($75 the first year, as I
recall), and I've even seen students have developer status that haven't
even completed a single program.
Just one of the differences between the two communities, I guess.
BTW, I don't have developer status, yet 🙂
Brian J. Bartlett
That's changed…Commodore will no longer accept just anyone as a
developer and the costs are higher now.
Don,
I hadn't heard that before! I guess that means I actually have to
produce code! Hideous thought that 🙂
Brian J. Bartlett