Re: When do you start addressing new SW versions?

[Chuck <writer -at- BEST -dot- COM>]

But it hasn't been tested in the Win2000 environment; Win2000 isn't
available yet. The best that's currently available, to MSDN members, MS
partners, and some others, is Win2000 beta 3. (I don't know what build
MS is up to now.) MS still has much to add to Win2000 before the
release, including lots of driver support.

Compnaies can typically say their program needs "version X.X or newer"
of another program because many companies try to make newer version
backward compatible, as MS has generally tried to do with Windows. But I
know of one case where a Canadian company has an internal, 16-bit
application, and the install for that problem would not work with early
versions of Win2000. When they contacted MS, the response was basically
"tough luck," that MS was not going to provide direct support for
problematic 16-bit applications that didn't work right in the Win2000
environment.

In terms of OS support, MS, Apple, and other OS vendors typically
release pre-release versions (not betas, but complete, finals versions)
to developers so they can do testing with the release version and
certify that the software does indeed work with what will be released.
But MS hasn't finished its "Golden Master" yet, and it probably won't be
available to developers until a few weeks before the official release to
the public, now seen as probably October.

John Posada wrote:
>
> I have no problem with including Win2000 becuase it
> has been tested in that environment. However, I
> specifically didn't want to say "later versions"
> because I won't reference a platform that hasn't been
> tested.
>
> --- Joe Schrengohst <jschreng -at- CISCO -dot- COM> wrote:
> | At 08:20 AM 7/1/1999 +1000, Susan Harkus wrote:
> | >John,
> | >..maybe you could just refer to the releases you
> | know and "later
> | >versions.." You don't want to leave your future
> | Windows 2000 users
> | >hanging with the question.. "but...what about me?"
> |
> |
> ****************************************************************************
> | I know that this is commonly done; however, there's
> | no way
> | possible to know whether a product will work with
> | the "later"
> | versions of another product (e.g., Windows2000).
> |

--
"[Programmers] cannot successfully be asked to design for users
because...inevitably, they will make judgments based on the
difficult of coding and not on the user's real needs."
        - Alan Cooper
        "About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design"

Chuck Martin
writer"at"best.com    www.writeforyou.com


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