They don't call it the "bleeding edge" for nothing.

Developers who have been working with the growing number of Community Technology Preview (CTP) builds of various Microsoft products are finding out the hard way what being an 'early adopter' means.

Testers (and Microsoft employees themselves) have run into difficulties when attempting to keep track of which CTP is which. In addition, CTPs of different products don't seem to mix very well with each other and/or with full-fledged beta versions of Microsoft wares. Sometimes, CTPs don't work correctly with shipping Micorsoft products products.

Microsoft blogger Eric Nelson is just one of many who've encountered CTP incompatibilities first-hand. In a posting where he said he was trying to keep it "simple" for developers, Nelson explained: "The July CTP of VS.NET does not work with the June CTP of SQL, nor does the June CTP of VS.NET. The June CTP of VSTS (Visual Studio Team System) does need the June CTP of SQL Server to run on top of. If you do elect to use the July CTP of VS.NET then you must target the SQL Server 2005 Express edition that ships with it."

As Microsoft officials constantly remind developers and customers, CTP product builds are not considered to be beta quality. Instead, they are interim snapshots, intended to provide testers with a glimpse of where particular products are, in between full-fledged beta releases.

Microsoft's developer division has been championing CTP releases for nearly a year, and has touted the CTP releases as proof that Microsoft is serious about becoming more transparent to its customers and partners.

Microsoft has released number of CTP builds of the Windows Communications Foundation (Indigo) and the Windows Presentation Foundation (Avalon) on Windows XP, as well as of Visual Studio 2005. Ditto with the SQL Server team, which has released more than one CTP build of Yukon, aka SQL Server 2005. The Acrylic, Exchange Server, BizTalk Server, Commerce Server and Host Integration Server teams are all getting into the CTP act. And the Windows team is making noise about releasing Windows Vista CTPs, as well.

Many testers have been bullish about Microsoft's decision to release more and earlier versions of products via the CTP program. But there are downsides to the CTP process, too.

"Working with the various CTP flavors is simultaneously frustrating and rewarding," said Rob Howard, founder of custom-software developer Telligent Systems and a former member of Microsoft's .Net Framework team. " It's like walking on a bed of hot coals -- as long as you keep up with the various builds your fine, but if you slow down or stop paying attention you'll get burned."

Patrick Hynds, a chief technology officer with the security-focused consultancy CriticalSites, said he has developed a system for avoiding CTP headaches.

"I don't try to integrate various components from different CTPs unless I get documentation on how it is to be done. When I get a new beta, I put the old stuff into a different place so I don't put the wrong version of SQL on with VS (Visual Studio). I do, however, know a lot of people who have gotten very frustrated in trying to patch together Frankenstein's development environment," Hynds said.

There is another way to make the whole CTP process more manageable: Rely on virtual machine technologies when running a CTP. That's according to Jackie Goldstein, principal of Renaissance Computer Systems Ltd.

"Before CTPs, people would complain that they couldn't have that early view," Goldstein said. "Now you can choose to install the CTP — or not. I will typically install a new CTP or internal build on a MS Virtual PC, rather than a production or main machine."

Microsoft bloggers have been vigilant in alerting early adopters to many potential CTP incompatibilities. Earlier this year, a few Microsoft developers put their heads together to come up with what they've coined the "CTP Madness" tool. They posted the tool the Channel 9 Sandbox.

Microsoft technical evangelist Michael Swanson explained the purpose of the tool via a blog posting:

"Now that we're releasing Community Technology Previews (CTPs) so frequently, it can be difficult (even for us Microsofties) to track which version of a product works with which version of the .NET Framework. The Channel 9 CTP Madness tool reports the versions that appear to be running on your current machine (via browsercaps) and shows which products are compatible."

So what's a developer to do? Eschew CTPs and the CTP process all together? Throw caution to the wind and install any and all CTPs? Setting expectations realistically is the key, according to CriticalSites' Hynds

"My own experience is that the development process is too fluid for us to expect backward compatibility among betas, let alone CTPs," Hynds said. "I think to call for it would be a mistake given that I feel it would just stifle the innovation that the new product is attempting to bring."

(This is an updated version of an article which appeared in the June 20, 2005, issue of the Microsoft Watch newsletter. Want to see what other Microsoft news nuggets you might have missed? Sign up today for a free two-week trial subscription to Microsoft Watch.)