It is so wonderful that you are so generous with your information. I once had posed that 'Beta' question , also. And now I know whence these Bezeichnungen come from. Public Beta !! I always wondered whether there also was a private Beta. It is satisfying that you explain the development of those terms. Thanks so much. My brain is like an open bucket, no, more like the size of a bath tub - always ready to receive tech-bites. Marta On Sunday, Jun 15, 2003, at 13:49 America/New_York, Jerry Yeager wrote:
> > On Saturday, June 14, 2003, at 07:11 AM, Troy Mello wrote: > >> The recent discussion about IE and Safari has made me very curious... >> expecially about Safari. >> >> 1. (and this may be a dumb question!) Safari Public Beta. What >> does "beta" mean? I am assuming it's a reference to something that >> is a test product or an unfinished product. Am I warm? >> > > When software is developed, it is supposed to rigorously tested > against all sorts of hardware and operating system combinations. When > a program is first being tested by the developer and his/her friends, > family and whichever acquaintances they can con, err talk into doing > this, the stage is referred to as alpha testing. After problems are > worked out and necessary changes are made it is tested again. Usually > this stage is called beta testing and it is done by folks only > remotely known to the developer and it usually is a larger pool of > folks than in the first round. Problems are supposed to be found and > fixed and tested again, then the thing goes out to the public as > "final". At this point a whole bunch new problems are found and > depending on the mood of the reviewers the thing is roundly booed or > given the "after some minor fixes, this ought to be a great program" > nod. > > Ah, such is the semi-ideal world. It seldom truly works like that I've > described, but that is the idea anyway. > > Apple has been using a different approach to the testing lately with > some of their products (Safari for example), with varying degrees of > success. They use the alpha and beta testing process (mostly anyway) > and then instead of sending it out as final in the first round, they > release it as a "public beta". This allows them to tap into the very > large number of Mac users to test and report back any problems, get it > fixed and then release a "final" version. Some of their critics don't > like it, some love it, some want to make it even larger by expanding > the number of first round beta testers. > > >> 2. What problems has anyone experienced with the Safari browser? >> Throughout the last discussion, it seems that a small handfull of >> secure websites for banking or shopping may not work well with >> Safari. I mostly use the net for on-line shopping... anyone run into >> any brick walls with Safari? >> > > If you get a free program from versiontracker.com called Safari > Enhancer, it will let you turn on Safari's debug menu. This menu has > an option for changing what is called the user agent string. This is > the name that your browser sends to the web-site which can then serve > up content based on what browser is visiting. If you run into a > serious problem, you can tell the site that Safari is IE or NN or one > of several others and go (usually) right on in. You may find > occasional glitches because the site programmers set it specifically > up for the way that a browser acts (incorrect handling of www > standards), but for the most part it will work. > > If you find a site where the glitches occur, a politely words message > will often get the problem taken care of. There is a growing sort of > grassroots support that is saying that sites should be set up to > conform to the www standards, not to the idiosyncrasies of one > browser, so if a site gets a reputation for bad support, well peer > pressure does work... > > > Jerry > >> Of course, I have not had any problems with IE. "If it ain't broke, >> don't fix it!".... right? However, I simply like the looks of Safari >> just like all other OSX applications. Plus, a few have mentioned >> that Safari operates faster than IE. Again, IE runs okay, for me.... >> but my interest in Safari is really soaring. I suppose the perfect >> solution would be download Safari and keep IE.... I could have my >> cake and eat it, too! >> >> Thanks so much for any opinions & have a great day everyone! >> >> Troy >> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* >> http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus >> >> >> >> | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will >> | be June 24. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. >> | This list's page is <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>. >> >> >> > > > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will > | be June 24. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. > | This list's page is <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>. > > Marta | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be June 24. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | This list's page is <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>.
