Lee's Funnies

                                                     
 
A Guide To Software Revisions

Once you start playing with software you quickly become 
aware that each software package has a revision code 
attached to it. It is obvious that this revision code gives 
the sequence of changes to the product, but in reality 
there's substantially more information available through the 
rev code than that. This article provides a guide for 
interpreting the meaning of the revision codes and what they 
actually signify.

V 1.0

Also known as "one point uh-oh", or "barely out of beta". We 
had to release because the lab guys had reached a point of 
exhaustion and the marketing guys were in a cold sweat of 
terror. We're praying that you'll find it more functional 
than, say, a computer virus and that its operation has some 
resemblance to that specified in the marketing copy.

V 1.1

We fixed all the killer bugs ...

V 1.2

Uh, we introduced a few new bugs fixing the killer bugs and 
so we had to fix them, too.

V 2.0

We did the product we really wanted to do to begin with. 
Mind you, it's really not what the customer needs yet, but 
we're working on it.

V 2.1

Well, not surprisingly, we broke some things in making major 
changes so we had to fix them. But we did a really good job 
of testing this time, so we don't think we introduced any 
new bugs while we were fixing these bugs.

V 2.2

Uh, sorry, one slipped through. One lousy typo error and you 
won't believe how much trouble it caused!

V 2.3

Some anal-retentive pain in the ass found a deep-seated bug 
that's been there since 1.0 and has been raising hell until 
we fixed it.

V 3.0

Hey, we finally think we've got it right! Most of the 
customers are really happy with this.

V 3.1

Of course we did break a few little things.

V 4.0

More features. It's doubled in size now, by the way, and 
you'll need to get memory and a faster processor ...

V 4.1

Just one or two bugs this time. Honest.

V 5.0

We really need to go on to a new product but we have an 
installed base out there to protect. We're cutting the 
staffing after this.

V 6.0

We had to fix a few things we broke in 5.0. Not very many, 
but it's been so long since we looked at this thing we might 
as well call it a major upgrade. Oh, yeah, we added a few 
flashy cosmetic features so we could justify the major 
upgrade number.

V 6.1

Since I'm leaving the company and I'm the last guy left in 
the lab who works on the product, I wanted to make sure that 
all the changes I've made are incorporated before I go. I 
added some cute demos, too, since I was getting pretty bored 
back here in my dark little corner (I kept complaining about 
the lighting but they wouldn't do anything). They're talking 
about obsolescence planning but they'll try to keep selling 
it for as long as there's a buck or two to be made.


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