The newest betas started and I poked at it with Hopper JUST to see what the hell they did to “fix” this error
It STILL PARSES A STRING !
In the left hand pane in the image attached you can see the method being viewed (_System.VersionData._Initialize)
And the disassembly in the middle, circled in red, is the CALL TO THE OS ROUTINE used
It calls operatingSystemVersionString
This is, was, and STILL IS wrong
Despite being literally GIVEN the code more than once by me and Christian and Sam its STILL doing it in the way Apple literally says it is NOT suitable for parsing
And you wonder why some people have no faith in the team ?
But are you sure this call is still used to be parsed later?
Perhaps they actually have followed the recommendations and use operatingSystemVersionString to, e.g. just show it in the about box?
Or perhaps it’s a call they forgot to remove but is now unused?
Want me to show you the rest of the disassembly ?
Disassemble it for yourself its you dont believe me
Theres lots and lots of disassembled code
All of it string manipulations like ToArray etc
Really
Its just more tacky string parsing
Really
IF I could figure out how to get that call to operatingSystemVersionString to return a really bad string I’d easily be able to get their code to fail
That I’m 100% certain of
It’s not that I don’t believe you, I do most of the time. It’s just you didn’t said you knew it was parsed later, so you could have assumed the call is still there so they’ve not changed their code.
Heck I’ll post the code HERE so they can just lift it
Attributes( StructureAlignment = 1 ) Protected Structure OSVersionInfo
major as integer
minor as integer
bug as integer
End Structure
this is in a module that has a few properties
Private Property m_Build As string
Private Property m_Bug As integer
Private Property m_cputype As string
Private Property m_MajorVersion As integer
Private Property m_MinorVersion As integer
Private Property m_Initialized As Boolean
The first time ANY method in the module tries to grab one of those properties its initialized
Private Sub Initialize()
If m_Initialized Then
Return
End If
m_Initialized = True
#If TargetMacOS
// --- We're using 10.10
Declare Function NSClassFromString Lib "AppKit" ( className As CFStringRef ) As Ptr
Declare Function processInfo Lib "AppKit" Selector "processInfo" ( ClassRef As Ptr ) As Ptr
Dim myInfo As Ptr = processInfo( NSClassFromString( "NSProcessInfo" ) )
Declare Function operatingSystemVersion Lib "AppKit" Selector "operatingSystemVersion" ( NSProcessInfo As Ptr ) As OSVersionInfo
Dim rvalue As OSVersionInfo = operatingSystemVersion( myInfo )
m_MajorVersion = rValue.major
m_MinorVersion = rvalue.minor
m_Bug = rvalue.bug
Declare Function sysctlbyname Lib "/usr/lib/libSystem.dylib" (name As cString, out As ptr, ByRef size As UInteger, newP As ptr, newPSize As UInteger) As Integer
Dim size As UInteger = 128
Dim mb As New memoryblock(size)
If sysctlbyname( "kern.osversion", mb, size, Nil, 0 ) = 0 Then
m_build = Trim(mb.CString(0))
End If
size = 256
mb = New memoryblock(size)
Dim retvalue As Integer = sysctlbyname( "machdep.cpu.brand_string", mb, size, Nil, 0 )
If sysctlbyname( "machdep.cpu.brand_string", mb, size, Nil, 0 ) = 0 Then
m_cputype = Trim(mb.CString(0))
End If
#ElseIf TargetWindows
Dim m As MemoryBlock
Dim wsuitemask As Integer
Dim ret As Integer
Dim szCSDVersion As String
Dim s As String
Soft Declare Function GetVersionExA Lib "kernel32" (lpVersionInformation As ptr) As Integer
Soft Declare Function GetVersionExW Lib "kernel32" (lpVersionInformation As ptr) As Integer
Dim retryUsingAVersion As Boolean = True
If System.IsFunctionAvailable( "GetVersionExW", "Kernel32" ) Then
retryUsingAVersion = False
m = NewMemoryBlock(284) ''use this for osversioninfoex structure (2000+ only)
m.long(0) = m.size 'must set size before calling getversionex
ret = GetVersionExW(m) 'if not 2000+, will return 0
If ret = 0 Then
// need to rety since 0 means "FAILED"
m = NewMemoryBlock(276)
m.long(0) = m.size 'must set size before calling getversionex
ret = GetVersionExW(m)
If ret = 0 Then
// Something really strange has happened, so use the A version
// instead
retryUsingAVersion = True
End
End
End If
If retryUsingAVersion = True Then
m = NewMemoryBlock(156) ''use this for osversioninfoex structure (2000+ only)
m.long(0) = m.size 'must set size before calling getversionex
ret = GetVersionExA(m) 'if not 2000+, will return 0
If ret = 0 Then
m = NewMemoryBlock(148) ' 148 sum of the bytes included in the structure (long = 4bytes, etc.)
m.long(0) = m.size 'must set size before calling getversionex
ret = GetVersionExA(m)
If ret = 0 Then
Return
End
End
End If
m_MajorVersion = m.long(4)
m_MinorVersion = m.long(8)
m_Bug = m.long(12)
#EndIf
End Sub
I fear that you are wasting your time. It is entirely possible that the Xojo team lacks the modesty necessary for acknowledging that they made a bad mistake.
You can’t help them with code…
Oh, they’ve been told publicly multiple times. There was even a whole thread on it.
Does filing feedback help? No.
Does communicating with them? No.
Does public lobbying help? No.
Does providing them with source code help? No.
Does public shaming them help? No.
The complaints on this will pass, as the complainers will eventually go away, we don’t need experienced customers anyway.
They are optimising Norman’s code to become low code … takes a bit of time. All busy on Android. If you are on the last mile after 7 years it is quite challenging to brake down that speedy car.
Which I can understand. We are all making mistake. I for instance choose Xojo, not easy to accept the truth that it was the wrong choice :-), and a lot(!) of work to escape.
At the end of the day it is simple. The biggest error is not to choose something. The biggest error is then not to change. There is no help and no chance for getting out otherwise. That you have done. With JavaScript based Webapps in a really impressive way. With javaFX in a real professional job you have done in learning it.
There was and is no other way. But instead I can listen only: “yes not for me while… And while… And while” but all of this without real arguments but the evidence that they did not get that it is the solution for exactly their problems.
To realize that there decisions are wrong is one thing. To do it right after another
the TRICK to breaking their code is to put the call to set up the hack in a CONSTRUCTOR for the APP instance so its replaced VERY VERY early on - before they call their set up
Yeah I’d have to compile & disassemble the app to see how early they do it BUT its nice to see I can swizzle this early enough to show that their code IS fragile
But, still no reply from Geoff so its clear to me that something as simple as this to get right just isnt something that they care about doing right
