Windows 10: Code that uses 'os.StartsWith(“Windows 9”)'

https://searchcode.com/?q=if%28version%2Cstartswith%28%22windows+9%22

by thomasbachem • 12 years ago

41 31 12 years ago

hk__2• 12 years ago

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8397664

snarfy• 12 years ago

They could have just ran those apps in compatibility mode, which returns different values for all the GetWindowsVersion calls.

Or they could rename the entire OS.

TillE2• 12 years ago

There are no APIs that return a string of the product name. GetVersionEx gives you numbers. To screw up in this manner, you have to be relying on at least two layers of broken code on top of the really simple API that you should be using directly.

So I don't buy this rumor at all. The number of real applications that 1) remember Windows 9x exist, 2) aren't completely broken on modern Windows anyway, and 3) go out of their way to use some convoluted version checking method has to be extremely small.

tokenizerrr2• 12 years ago

This "convulted version checking method" is the default way to do it with Java, I'm not sure if there's any other programming languages that do it as well.

campuscodi• 12 years ago

I would go with renaming the entire OS. Let it be FAOSDSACH, as in Formerly Awesome Operating System Destroyed by Suits And Corporate Heads

serve_yay• 12 years ago

Ahhh, come on already with this one. Let it die.

cssandjs• 12 years ago

Oh my!

So that's why they went with 10 - it makes sense now.

outworlder• 12 years ago

There are no good reasons to check for an OS version anyway. Checking for the platform, ok. Not the version. That can be handled with feature detection.

nshepperd• 12 years ago

There's one good reason - sometimes feature detection lies. Or the feature you are looking for is implemented nonstandardly (brokenly).

ashearer• 12 years ago

I generally agree, but I'd amend that to "there are few good reasons". When an API is present but buggy, sometimes there's no good way around a version check. It can still be regarded as a last resort.

unclebunkers4• 12 years ago

Sorry, but this doesn't even come close to working in the real world. If you're on the web, then this makes sense. However, on the metal, you need to know versions.

gjulianm• 12 years ago

I don't find this search reliable at all. There are a lot of completely unrelated results. I couldn't find any related match on the 2.000+ Python results, for example. Same with C++. This is being publicized as "proof" of the rumor but it's not representative at all.

The Windows C/C++ API returns a structure with version numbers [1], same with the C# one [2]. Other languages just wrap the native C API call, GetVersionEx.

The most troubled framework is Java: because of some strange design decision, you can only get the version as a string (see [3]), and that makes impressively easy for programmers to screw up version checks. However, as other commenters have said, those apps could run on compatibility mode and Windows would solve the issue itself instead of completely changing an operating system's name.

1: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms72... 2: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.environment.o... 3: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/228477/how-do-i-programma...

cobalt• 12 years ago

Never underestimate a programmers ability to fuck shit up

micampe• 12 years ago

I'm sure the API provides the information, that doesn't stop developers from doing crazy things. The rumor, whether true or false, is actually just more evidence of how Microsoft is devoted to binary compatibility. It's a funny bit, yes, but doesn't say anything bad about MS at all.

DanBC2• 12 years ago

So, when they get to Windows 19 do they need to skip to 21 to avoid all the 2000 checks?

unclebunkers4• 12 years ago

There won't be a windows 20, or anything closet to that. If we're still using computers the way we are now in 20 years, then we've seriously failed as a species.

lanna• 12 years ago

We are still using computers now the way we were 20 years ago!

Remember Windows 95? That was 19 years ago!

It's easy to imagine someone like you in 1995 proclaiming there would not be a Windows 2015, or anything close to that.

Nothing has fundamentally changed, Internet and all. Even tablets, smartphones and multitouch interfaces are still basically the same old thing.

DanBC2• 12 years ago

2 digit dates seemed safe enough because lol no one would be using this software in the year 2000.

IPv4 address space seemed plenty enough.

640 k should be enough.

pavlov• 12 years ago

My theory about the "Windows 10" name is that there is an intermediate Windows Phone release coming in early 2015, and they've decided to call that Windows Phone 9. Hence the unified release will be version 10.

csandreasen• 12 years ago

Apparently one of the perks to not calling it Windows 9 is that Microsoft doesn't have to deal with poorly written OS detection code that searches for "Windows 9" in expectation of it matching "Windows 95" or "Windows 98".

bcj2• 12 years ago

I ran into some code a few days ago that wouldn't install because it was checking OS X version as a string and '10.10' < '10.5'. Bad code will always find a way

songgao• 12 years ago

Any chance it was Matlab? I had to change version to 9 or 90 to run Matlab

bcj2• 12 years ago

It was PyObjC.

more_original• 12 years ago

CP/M/3.1 (Pentium (like 386); Intel AMD) DOS 6.0 Windows/6.4 (NT, like Mac OS X) Windows/95 Windows/10

Windows 10: Code that uses 'os.StartsWith(“Windows 9”)'

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