Editing Software versioning (section)

==Pre-release versions==
In conjunction with the various versioning schemes listed above, a system for denoting pre-release versions is generally used, as the program makes its way through the stages of the [[software release life cycle]].

Programs that are in an early stage are often called "alpha" software, after the first letter in the Greek alphabet. After they mature but are not yet ready for release, they may be called "beta" software, after the second letter in the Greek alphabet. Generally alpha software is tested by developers only, while beta software is distributed for community testing.

Some systems use numerical versions less than 1 (such as 0.9), to suggest their approach toward a final "1.0" release. This is a common convention in [[Open-source software development|open source software]].<ref name=toaru>{{cite news|title=ToaruOS 1.0 Open Source OS Released After 6+ Years Of Development|url=https://fossbytes.com/toaruos-1-0-open-source/|access-date=May 23, 2017|date=February 13, 2017}}</ref><ref name=wine>{{cite magazine|last1=Gilbertson|first1=Scott|title=Wine Headed For a 1.0 Release. Finally.|magazine=WIRED |url=https://www.wired.com/2008/05/wine_headed_for_a_1dot0_releasedot_finallydot/|publisher=Wired|access-date=May 23, 2017}}</ref> However, if the pre-release version is for an existing software package (e.g. version 2.5), then an "a" or "alpha" may be appended to the version number. So the alpha version of the 2.5 release might be identified as 2.5a or 2.5.a.

An alternative is to refer to pre-release versions as "release candidates", so that software packages which are soon to be released as a particular version may carry that version tag followed by "rc-#", indicating the number of the release candidate; when the final version is released, the "rc" tag is removed.