"If all is well I'll be asking for interested testers soon!"

Well, today is a slightly scary day.  I'm putting a stick in the sand and saying that what I've got is good enough for a first Alpha release.  Which of course means what I've actually done today is mostly built gates for the Great Chicken Fencing project and made lemon cordial (so good!) and weeded the entry steps.  Nothing like an important and scary task for getting other things done :)

Alpha (and its sisters Beta and Release Candidate) mean different things to different people in the software world.  For me, Alpha means that the product is not complete - doesn't even have all it's features started let alone complete, but represents a snapshot that is good enough in some aspect for it to be worth trying out.  Beta means that the product is 'complete' although it may be riddled with bugs, and some of the features may still need significant work.  Release Candidate is simpler - it's just 'I could release this, if no bugs are found'.

So, first Alpha!  I'll only be showing this one privately to a few people to check that what I'm working on isn't completely dumb and un-fun.  But if all is well (and I fix most of the bugs they find), I'll be asking for interested testers soon!