beta
Noun · AdjectiveOpen English WordNet
Noun (2)
- the 2nd letter of the Greek alphabetType of letter, letter of the alphabetMember of Greek alphabet
- beetsSynonyms: genus BetaType of caryophylloid dicot genus, ChenopodiaceaeMembers beet, common beet
Adjective (2)
- second in order of importance“the candidate, considered a beta male, was perceived to be unable to lead his party to victory”Opposite unimportantSimilar important, of import
- preliminary or testing stage of a software or hardware product“a beta version”“beta software”Opposite nonexplorativeSimilar exploratory, explorative
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Adjective beta, in testing stage
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: Gr. βῆτα.
The second letter of the Greek alphabet, B, β. See B, and cf. etymology of Alphabet. Beta (B, β) is used variously for classifying, as: (a) Astronomy To designate some bright star, usually the second brightest, of a constellation, as, β Aurigæ. (b) Chemistry To distinguish one of two or more isomers; also, to indicate the position of substituting atoms or groups in certain compounds; as, β-naphthol. With acids, it commonly indicates that the substituent is in union with the carbon atom next to that to which the carboxyl group is attached.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: 1913 supplement
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
Kristensen, Madsen <olmadsen@daimi.aau.dk>, Moller-Pedersen & Nygaard, 1983. Object-oriented language with block structure, coroutines, concurrency, strong typing, part objects, separate objects and classless objects. Central feature is a single abstraction mechanism called "patterns", a generalisation of classes, providing instantiation and hierarchical inheritance for all objects including procedures and processes.
Mjolner Informatics ApS, Aarhus, implementations for Mac, Sun, HP, Apollo.
E-mail: <info@mjolner.dk>.
Mailing list: <usergroup@mjolner.dk>.
["Object-Oriented Programming in the BETA Programming Language", Ole Lehrmann et al, A-W June 1993, ISBN 0-201-62430-3]. [Jargon File]
(1995-10-31)
/bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/
See beta conversion, beta test. [Jargon File]
The Jargon File
1.Mostly working, but still under test; usu. used with “in”: in beta. In the Real World, hardware or software systems often go through two stages of release testing: Alpha (in-house) and Beta (out-house?). Beta releases are generally made to a group of lucky (or unlucky) trusted customers.
2.Anything that is new and experimental. “His girlfriend is in beta” means that he is still testing for compatibility and reserving judgment.
3.Flaky; dubious; suspect (since beta software is notoriously buggy).
Historical note: More formally, to beta-test is to test a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it available to selected (or self-selected) customers and users. This term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry. Alpha Test was the unit, module, or component test phase; Beta Test was initial system test. These themselves came from earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a feasibility and manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design and development. The B-test was a demonstration that the engineering model functioned as specified. The C-test (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early samples of the production design, and the D test was the C test repeated after the model had been in production a while.