When does 'beta' turn to 'alpha' ?

[Buzby]

I'm running PE6 with the 'beta' 20X2 compiler ( v4.0 ). It's been like this since 2018.

I assume a 'beta' version is one that is still under development, and might have unresolved issues.

When is the v4.0 compiler suite going to be released officialy ?

 

[papaof2]

When enough people find bugs in the beta ersion?

 

[Buzby]

Most of the bugs that have been reported since 2018 ( the last released update ) were PE6 bugs, with only one compiler bug I know of, the '20X2 #slot4' bug.

This bug was fixed in the 2018 beta release of the compiler, and I've not seen any other compiler problems since then.

Five years would seem to be long enough for Rev-Ed to decide if the beta is stable, so why has it not been released as alpha ?

 

[steliosm]

...maybe because the product is dying and Rev-Ed will not put any resources into it anymore?

 

[hippy]

Five years would seem to be long enough for Rev-Ed to decide if the beta is stable, so why has it not been released as alpha ?

It's not time which determines if a thing is stable or not but extensive usage with no reports of bugs.

It is a bit of a Catch 22 when few have any need to use the beta compilers because the current compilers work just fine for all but a few users. It remains unwise to replace the existing compilers with those which have seen far less real world testing so things have remained as they are.

 

[Buzby]

It is a bit of a Catch 22 when few have any need to use the beta compilers because the current compilers work just fine for all but a few users.

Can Rev-Ed remotely determine how many users are running PE6, and with which compilers ?

To say it 'works fine for all but a few users' is a bit disingenuous. It is actually more accurate to say 'most users have no need to use the broken functions'.

None of the bugs I've reported since 2018 have been requests for new features, they have all been requests to have existing functions repaired, but nothing has happened. Other people have reported different short comings, especially the 'check for updates' requirement to used outdated TLS security settings, something I would have thought any supplier company would want to get fixed ASAP. ( There is also the 'long line' problem, although I don't see that as a real issue, it is just a sign of not enough 'edge case' testing. )

I'm sorry to say, but it really does look like Rev-Ed have lost the desire ( or ability ) to fix the faults in PE6.

 

[kfjl]

Why not go back to PE5?
Or axepad?
I counted 135 employees in the raspberrypi foundation. I don't know how many there are in raspberrypi trading. They're the competition now.
The five people at Rev-Ed are not going to bother with "cosmetic" bugs when they've provided all that's needed to compile and upload picaxe programs.
Maybe they'll go out with a bang and go open-source...

 

[Buzby]

Why not go back to PE5?
Or axepad?

Because (a) PE6 has a better simulator, and (b) I don't do MAC or UNIX !.

The five people at Rev-Ed are not going to bother with "cosmetic" bugs when they've provided all that's needed to compile and upload picaxe programs.

A cosmetic bug is e.g. a wrong label spelling, or a poor choice of font, or a mismatched colour, or a typo in the help text.

A bug which requires the user to revert back to insecure internet protocols is not cosmetic.

Maybe they'll go out with a bang and go open-source...

Open source is almost the way to go. My suggestion a year or two ago was for a curated open source.

The big problem with Open Source is that Rev-Ed and the forum would have a nightmare trying to help anyone solve a Picaxe problem when the PE itself could be riddled with faults.

I can see two options. Both release PE, but Rev-Ed retains control of the compilers.

One is that Rev-Ed release the source code, but only provide support where 'real' PE is used. Rev-Ed could select bits from the new PEs to build into their 'real' PE. The forum could pick and choose who to help based on the reliability of the PE in question.

The other is that the PE source code is released completely , and all further support is handled by the forum. Rev-Ed change to being mainly a hardware company, with only the compilers still under their control.

It does seem like Rev-Ed have changed recently. The bugs highlighted in PE5 times were always acted on promptly, and a fix came in the next release. However, since the release of PE6 the bug rate hasn't changed, but absolutely nothing has been updated in the last five years.

 

[OLDmarty]

My question would have been "when will PE6 become PE7?"

I have a strong feeling that a PE7 might need to be written by a different (highly motivated) party to keep things moving forward & fresh, but that's just my 2cents ;-)