Beta or Stable?

[X-Dave]

"BETA Releases - who should use?
We will be offering a freely available Beta release of the latest PDF-XChange Viewer build from mid October onwards, this will be available to all and will be updated frequently, meaning the alternative 'stable' releases will be offered less frequently than has been the case to date. It is recommended that this is used by advanced users only who are comfortable using beta software and aware that it may contain issues and bugs - but accept this and would prefer to take advantage of the latest functionality available. We suggest this should not be used by corporate users with large installed client bases unless specifically recommended to do so by a member of our Support team."

Ermm... OK.


So, which is which?

BTW, the 2.5.188 seems fine & stable to me (I did prefer the old GUI though).

[Chris - PDF-XChange]

Hi X-Dave,

I believe that 2.057 is available on the downloads page at the bottom of the Viewer Files list and 2.5.188 is the beta. It is a stable version but due to newly added support for particularly the XFA forms, there can be issues so it'd be your call, if you experience issue then you can always go back to the 2.057. As well the ability to switch to the classic UI will be available in version 3 of the Viewer scheduled for release in early 2011.

Best,
Chris

[X-Dave]

@Chris - Tracker Supp, OK thanks for the info. The beta seems fine to me though. I haven't encountered any problems so far. I think I can live with the new GUI LOL!

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

It is a stable version but due to newly added support for particularly the XFA forms, there can be issues

Sorry, but this is just double-speak. In my experience, almost every single "stable" release of PDF-XChange has had bugs and issues. Since you are well aware that there may be bugs, then the recommendation must be to treat it as a beta. Indeed, my copy is labelled as a BETA in Help, About, and no updates are available. However, the download page says that build 2.5.188 is a "stable" version. It should say "BETA" because that's what it is.

[X-Dave]

It is a stable version but due to newly added support for particularly the XFA forms, there can be issues

Sorry, but this is just double-speak. In my experience, almost every single "stable" release of PDF-XChange has had bugs and issues. Since you are well aware that there may be bugs, then the recommendation must be to treat it as a beta. Indeed, my copy is labelled as a BETA in Help, About, and no updates are available. However, the download page says that build 2.5.188 is a "stable" version. It should say "BETA" because that's what it is.

Yes, I agree in a way. If you made it more clear that this was a beta version in the updating process at least there would be a choice to install or not.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Hi,

Initially we were going to make this a beta release and even prepared a link on our pages to download as a beta - however - this proved to be impossible for several practical reasons related to the range of products in which we offer the Viewer as a component - our internal scripts generating compiled versions of the products and also the installers, cannot at this time handle differing versions of the viewer being offered at the same time as a complete compile of all products - which was required at this time as new versions of our drivers and also all SDK's was also released.

It was also felt that for the most part - this is a more stable release than the previous one because of the new PDF forms types supported which do not now result in an error on opening.

I appreciate the problem explained above regarding our internal automated scripts for new build compilations and installers etc is not ideal and we are looking at seeing how we can modify this so we can release a beta if necessary in such circumstances - but I felt I should at least explain why on this occasion it was not possible. If this were an interim build just for the end user version of the Viewer - this would not have been a problem, but on this occasion it was not and the entire process takes approx a day to complete with testing etc - so its not a trivial exercise to perform unless 100% worthwhile as a days development etc is lost for over 20 people.

Thanks for your patience.

[X-Dave]

@John - Tracker Supp

OK, thanks for the reply. The reader seems fine to me anyway. I was just curious as I am a bit new to PDF-XC.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Thanks Dave - appreciate your understanding.