[TenTec] Software Testing

[Tommy]

What Jason says about software testing is quite true.

In the case of the Orion's firmware and it's pre-release testing, I think Ten Tec has established a resonably good system for wringing out the upcoming firmware release. They have a list of some 20 hams who have signed up to run beta test. These beta testers may download the beta firmware and have the opportunity to really wring it out before it's released publically. What this gives you are hams, like myself for instance, who have a great interest in the Orion's CW performance, and then the overall performance of the Orion, to test for both known and unknown firmware bugs. There is a reflector where we all can compare notes and confirm what each of us find during our test. While this process really has the 'user community' involved, it is by it's nature, a rather slow process. And as Jason mentions, even with the user communities involvement, things are going to 'slip through the cracks'.

Ten Tec, not being primarily a 'software house' does not have a software engineering department with several bodies to write software, and the person working on the firmware really does have a thankless job in that he probably will never receive a 'Thank you' from Orion users, but sure does catch hell when something is not working right. But the process does seem to be working quite well and it is important for the Orion users to go to www.rfsquared.com when they find an issue that they believe is firmware related, and send an email to ditsnbits, with reasonable detail of their findings.

Tom - W4BQF