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| English Dictionary: beta |
by the
DICT Development Group |
| 5 results for beta |
| From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: |
- beta
- adj
- second in order of importance; "the candidate, considered
a beta male, was perceived to be unable to lead his party to victory"
- preliminary or testing stage of a software or hardware product; "a beta version"; "beta software"
- n
- the 2nd letter of the Greek alphabet
- beets
Synonym(s): Beta, genus Beta
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| From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: |
Beta \Be"ta\, n. [Gr. bh^ta.]
The second letter of the Greek alphabet, B, [beta]. See {B},
and cf. etymology of {Alphabet}.
Note: Beta (B, [beta]) is used variously for classifying, as:
(a) (Astron.) To designate some bright star, usually the
second brightest, of a constellation, as, [beta]
Aurig[91].
(b) (Chem.) To distinguish one of two or more isomers; also,
to indicate the position of substituting atoms or groups
in certain compounds; as, [beta]-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.
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| From Jargon File (4.2.0, 31 JAN 2000) [jargon]: |
beta /bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/ n. 1. Mostly
working, but still under test; usu. used with `in': `in beta'. In
the {Real World}, systems (hardware or software) software 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.
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| From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]: |
beta
/bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/
See {beta conversion}, {beta test}.
[{Jargon File}]
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| From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]: |
BETA
Kristensen, Madsen , 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: .
Mailing list: .
["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)
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No guarantee of accuracy or completeness!
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