Re: Known Issues with AppleScript 1.7 (Mac OS 9.2.2) and 1.8.1 (MacOS X 10.1.2)
Re: Known Issues with AppleScript 1.7 (Mac OS 9.2.2) and 1.8.1 (MacOS X 10.1.2)
- Subject: Re: Known Issues with AppleScript 1.7 (Mac OS 9.2.2) and 1.8.1 (MacOS X 10.1.2)
- From: email@hidden
- Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 01:01:16 EST
Chris,
For the record, _I_ never claimed there no QA on the Applescript team. : )
Also for the record, the problem with Smile and Applescript 1.7 was
publically announced by me, here on this list, on November 9, 2001, before
1.7 was released. I subsequently traded a few emails with Emmanuel on the
issue.
In my experience, here are the main problems with the various versions of
Applescript:
(OS) AS vers.
(8.6) 1.3.7 - stable AFAIK
(9.0) 1.4 - 9.0 as a whole was too new/buggy to even rate this one
(9.04) 1.4.3 - stay open scripts will not stay open [fatal]
(9.1) 1.5.5 - the sweet spot (for me)
(9.1) 1.6 - CGI startup bug [fatal]
(9.2.x) 1.7 - Smile unusable - caused by the Standard Additions 1.7, which
appear to offer little advantage (and many problems) vs. 1.6.
Is there a problem using Applescript extension 1.7 + Standard Additions 1.6 +
MacOS 9.1? This would seem likely to give the best mix of bug fixes,
stability, and compatibility.
Also, while I have your ear... What can you do about CGIs in OSX? If you
didn't catch my recent email, these are the missing pieces:
1) Apache connector for Applescript CGIs (take the one from OSX Server)
2) Parse/lookup field/pack CGI functionality (like Tanaka's osax and ACME
Parse args). Including URL encode and decode would be a great help too.
I'd love to chat with you directly to hammer this out. Keep up the good work,
and thanks.
Jeff Baumann
email@hidden
www.linkedresources.com
cc please, on digest
In a message dated 1/15/02 6:31:37 PM, Chris Espinosa wrote:
>
All,
>
>
There's been a lot of talk on this list about problems in recent
>
versions of AppleScript. I want to reassure you that the assertions
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made by some list members that these versions had no QA, that Apple has
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destaffed AppleScript, and that Apple is not interested in AppleScript,
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are flatly untrue.
>
>
We did, however, release new versions of AppleScript with last-minute
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changes that caused problems in commonly-used applications. We've
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documented these known problems and are working on fixes for them. The
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current release notes for AppleScript can be found at:
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>
http://www.apple.com/applescript/macosx/release_notes/181.html (1.8.1
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for Mac OS X 10.1.2)
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http://www.apple.com/applescript/macosx/release_notes/1.7.html (1.7
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for Mac OS 9.2.2)
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>
These notes document the dozens of bug fixes and product improvements
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we've put into these versions, as well as some of the problems we're
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aware of, which include:
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- coercion handlers and Standard Additions that break many solutions and
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applications, including Smile, on Mac OS 9
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- poor performance and occasional crashes in some applications on 9 and
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Classic, notably Claris Emailer
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- occasional crashes in Script Debugger 3.0 on Mac OS X
>
>
Because of the nature of the problems in Mac OS 9.2.2, we will be
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shipping AppleScript 1.6 on new CPUs that use Mac OS 9.2.2 (the 9.2.2
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Software Update will continue to install version 1.7). We'll be posting
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instructions shortly on how to reinstall AppleScript 1.6 for use with
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the 9.2.2 Software Update.
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Mac OS X version 10.1.2 has known problems with Script Debugger, and
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we're working with Mark Alldritt to resolve those problems and allow his
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customers to use that version of AppleScript.
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We expect that versions that fix these known problems will be out
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shortly.
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We do have a Quality team that runs test suites, does ad-hoc testing,
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and validates each internal and external release of AppleScript; this
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team found dozens of bugs in the development of 1.7 and 1.8.1 that were
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fixed prior to shipment. But no internal testing effort is as thorough
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as real-world use, we did not have an adequate Beta test cycle for
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either of these releases. (As an example, since we began seeding
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AppleScript 1.7 for Mac OS 9, we received 16 bug reports from our Beta
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sites, 9 of which were duplicates of known bugs or were not actual
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bugs. This compares to 27 bugs reported by the AppleScript team and 15
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bugs found by other Apple employees, 5 of which were duplicates or
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non-bugs.) For future releases we hope to have a longer Beta test
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period and more publicity and distribution for the Beta versions, so
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that problems like the ones we've seen in 1.7 and 1.8.1 can be found and
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fixed prior to their release in an operating system update.
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I thank you for your patience while we address these issues and for
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your commitment to the AppleScript technology.
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Regards,
>
>
Chris Espinosa
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Manager, Components & Scripting
>
Apple