Pry tell, what's your explanation for the jump to windows 10?Levellass wrote: Oh yes, you will not BELIEVE how many programs go 'Hey, is there a '9' in the version name? Ok, that's 95\8.'
Windows 10 Technical Preview and Windows Insider Program
Firstly it's *Pray" tell. Secondly... didn't I just give it? I mean... you quoted it right there...Lava89 wrote:Pry tell, what's your explanation for the jump to windows 10?Levellass wrote: Oh yes, you will not BELIEVE how many programs go 'Hey, is there a '9' in the version name? Ok, that's 95\8.'
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
Microsoft is often criticized for being reluctant to break compatibility with legacy versions of Windows. Microsoft must consider this even for relatively simple tasks like naming the next version of Windows. Many of you should be old enough to remember that there have already been two versions of Windows that began with the number 9, specifically Windows 95 and Windows 98.
To save time, some third-party Windows desktop developers used a shorthand to check the version name (not number) of Windows they were installing their app to. Instead of coding apps to check for Windows 95 or Windows 98, developers coded instructions to check for "Windows 9."
That made sense since there were only two versions of Windows that had a nine in their name to that point. It was simply an easier way to figure out which version of Windows the program was dealing with. Check out this Windows 9 search on the code-focused search engine, searchcode, which was first identified by developer Christer Kaitila. At the top of the search results you'll see a bunch of code–again, Java–checking for Windows 9, but not Windows 9.: https://searchcode.com/?q=if%28version% ... ws+9%22%29
Let's look at some example code shall we?
To save time, some third-party Windows desktop developers used a shorthand to check the version name (not number) of Windows they were installing their app to. Instead of coding apps to check for Windows 95 or Windows 98, developers coded instructions to check for "Windows 9."
That made sense since there were only two versions of Windows that had a nine in their name to that point. It was simply an easier way to figure out which version of Windows the program was dealing with. Check out this Windows 9 search on the code-focused search engine, searchcode, which was first identified by developer Christer Kaitila. At the top of the search results you'll see a bunch of code–again, Java–checking for Windows 9, but not Windows 9.: https://searchcode.com/?q=if%28version% ... ws+9%22%29
Let's look at some example code shall we?
Code: Select all
/** Performs computation and returns the result, or throws some exception. */
public HashSet<String> call() throws Exception {
final String arch = System.getProperty("os.arch");
String name = System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase();
String version = System.getProperty("os.version");
if (name.equals("solaris") || name.equals("SunOS")) {
name = "solaris";
} else if (name.startsWith("windows")) {
name = "windows";
if (name.startsWith("windows 9")) {
if (version.startsWith("4.0")) {
version = "95";
} else if (version.startsWith("4.9")) {
version = "me";
} else {
assert version.startsWith("4.1");
version = "98";
}
} else {
if (version.startsWith("4.0")) {
version = "nt4";
} else if (version.startsWith("5.0")) {
version = "2000";
} else if (version.startsWith("5.1")) {
version = "xp";
} else if (version.startsWith("5.2")) {
version = "2003";
}
}
} else if (name.startsWith("linux")) {
Release release = new Release();
name = release.distributorId();
version = release.release();
} else if (name.startsWith("mac")) {
name = "mac";
} else {
// Take the System.properties values verbatim.
}What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
Raymond Chen, a member of the Microsoft Windows compatibility team, wrote an amazing collection of vignettes (PDF) about applications that do really lazy/stupid things and make his work difficult. Definitely worth the read, even if you're not a Win32 developer. Note the one starting on page 9, "When the operating system version number changes."