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Subject: Re: FRTIZ------> the best???

Author: Ed Schröder

Date: 01:46:13 12/28/99

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>Posted by Pete Galati on December 27, 1999 at 21:18:33:
>
>It probably sounds like I'm complaining (because I am), but this release date
>keeps getting pushed back.  And we can see some great tournament results for
>Chess Tiger, but the Windows version is still yet to be proven.
>
>Is it _really_ coming out in January as Gambitsoft indicates, or will it be
>pushed back to February or March?

The cdrom is currently in production. We expect the cdroms to be ready the
second week of January.

About release dates.......

Only a few chess companies give full pre-information on upcoming
products. A side-effect of being transparent is that it sometimes
raises logical questions like yours.

Here is some data based on a long experience. If you have a release
date in mind then all development (GUI and engine) should stop 2-3
months before and then start BETA testing.

BETA testing is NOT only about finding bugs as there are NOT so many.
Most of the time BETA testing is about adding many and many small
improvements to the GUI suggested by the beta-team. In that period
the GUI programmers feel like chased animals.

BETA testing is done with a team of 20-25 people communication goes
via the internet by the use of a private bulletin-board. If everybody
is satisfied (me in particular) it's time to decide to close the BETA
stage and start the production. Most of the time this whole process
takes 2 months but you can't exclude a scenario of 3 months.

Bottom line: delays are maybe not funny for people who are waiting for
a product on the other hand customer and company have a mutual interest
to release a good a flawless product.

I personally don't believe in the assumption companies release versions
full of bugs just to get some fast money at least I have not noticed this
in the chess software area. The result is hundreds of email complaints,
letters, fax you all have to answer not to speak about losing reputation.
It's a bad formula.

Ed





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