In article <3C0### [at] pacbellnet> , Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet>  
wrote:

> POV-Ray v3.1 went through 6 public beta versions before final release.
> Once it was released officially there were still some rather serious
> bugs found and fixed. Each official release that has an upgrade is
> assigned an alpha designator with the first official release build
> designated with an "a". There were (I seem to recall) a couple of
> revisions that did not even make it out to the public.

Change31.doc that comes with the source code tells everybody the whole
story:

19 alpha versions (none released to the public)
26 beta versions (6 released, but I think only 5 released to the public)
8 final versions

The final versions started with 3.1.  I think 3.1a followed just two weeks
after that, and I think 3.1 wasn't or was only for a very short time
available outside CompuServe.  I am sure 3.1c and 3.1f were never released
to the public.  I am not sure about 3.1b...

Note that for 3.5 we so far have not used letter sub-releases since
3.5.alpha.3h which dates back to 3/29/00.

I think a more accurate measurement is the time the 3.1 beta test ran.  It
started on March 13th 1998.  The first final version was released exactly
six month later.  The beta test for 3.5 started September 4th, so compared
to 3.1 this would put a release sometime in early March, which I personally
think is a realistic timeframe.  However, the POV-Team is on no schedule
regarding a final release and the above date is just what I *personally*
think is realistic.


    Thorsten

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