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Reverse Engineering MacOS High Sierra Supplemental Update

cocoaengineering.com

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Re: Reverse Engineering MacOS High Sierra Supplemental Update

#51

Post by devdoomari »

IncRnd wrote: post #40
devdoomari wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

um... use dependent types? sorry but I'm from different language background :(

Provable code would solve the root cause, yes. :) However, even with provable code, the proof actually has to be both correct and performed. There are too many competing factors that won't allow idris, for example, to actually work. The result is that, as an industry, the Internet and the world's business are held together by twine, twist ties, and spaghetti code. Even this very webpage is just enough to work for mos…

so... I guess strong-AI-based coding is the only 100% sure way to go

(but... I'd be jobless if that were to happen :(

Re: Reverse Engineering MacOS High Sierra Supplemental Update

#53

Post by toyg »

danra wrote: post #16

It's pretty insane this sort of bug either passed or didn't even go through code review and testing at Apple, a company which has approximately infinite resources and whose marketing pitch is making high-quality products. I loved Apple products and still do, but as both a user of and a developer for their systems, I feel the quality has been steadily going downhill the last few years.

> a company which has approximately infinite resources

I believe the leadership insists in keeping up a pretension that this is not actually the case. To be fair, most of that "infinity" is sitting in offshore bank accounts and can only be used as leverage for borrowing rather than being spent directly.

Re: Reverse Engineering MacOS High Sierra Supplemental Update

#56

Post by nicolasd »

eru wrote: post #44
nicolasd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: How would you suggest to write a test that prevents this? You wouldn't make an assertion on clearTextPassword !== passwordHint. While developing I would think "Who will ever do that? That would be insane". But yes, even if there is no test, this should have been caught in code review or latest when testing the OS.

Yes, with 'example based testing' this is hard to come up with. With property based testing, it's not so hard to test this kind of UI things: You test a UI by basically throwing sequences of interactions at it. Some of the properties you'd want to assert: * Given two interaction sequences that only differ in what they do to the password hint field in the UI, the result should only differ differ in the returned passwo…

Thanks for the detailed answer and coming up with a property-based test that is not a "1+1=2" example :)

Re: Reverse Engineering MacOS High Sierra Supplemental Update

#57

Post by cjsuk »

tempodox wrote: post #20

Installing a new Mac OS on a machine you care for has become an absolute no-go area. I wait for at least half a year and then only install in a place that I can trash in case I still see problems.

Let us not forget the butt clench of doom from Microsoft either. Every minor updates hoses people these days as well.

Re: Reverse Engineering MacOS High Sierra Supplemental Update

#58

Post by rangibaby »

rusk wrote: post #24
danra wrote: post #16

It's pretty insane this sort of bug either passed or didn't even go through code review and testing at Apple, a company which has approximately infinite resources and whose marketing pitch is making high-quality products. I loved Apple products and still do, but as both a user of and a developer for their systems, I feel the quality has been steadily going downhill the last few years.

> whose marketing pitch is making high-quality products "It just works" was retired some time ago. "Think different" is the modern day mantra. It's less of an open-ended commitment.

I remember the Think different posters from when I was a kid. As far as I can tell "It just works" is from the PC vs Mac tv ads from about ten years ago.

Re: Reverse Engineering MacOS High Sierra Supplemental Update

#59

Post by pavlov »

danra wrote: post #16

It's pretty insane this sort of bug either passed or didn't even go through code review and testing at Apple, a company which has approximately infinite resources and whose marketing pitch is making high-quality products. I loved Apple products and still do, but as both a user of and a developer for their systems, I feel the quality has been steadily going downhill the last few years.

I don't know. Serious QA problems in Apple software isn't anything new.

Remember when iTunes 2.0 would wipe out hard disks?

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/01/11/04/0412209/itunes-20-...

The problem was an installer script that ran "rm -rf" as root:

https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/itunes-2-0-an-analysis-of-what-...

Re: Reverse Engineering MacOS High Sierra Supplemental Update

#60

Post by gm-conspiracy »

toyg wrote: post #53
danra wrote: post #16

It's pretty insane this sort of bug either passed or didn't even go through code review and testing at Apple, a company which has approximately infinite resources and whose marketing pitch is making high-quality products. I loved Apple products and still do, but as both a user of and a developer for their systems, I feel the quality has been steadily going downhill the last few years.

> a company which has approximately infinite resources I believe the leadership insists in keeping up a pretension that this is not actually the case. To be fair, most of that "infinity" is sitting in offshore bank accounts and can only be used as leverage for borrowing rather than being spent directly.

To be fair, it doesn't need to be spent in the US.
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