Whats the killer deal with Catalina?

On some posts I have been reading (paraphrased)

What have I missed?
Whats the killer problem with Catalina that compiling a 64bit app in Xojo 2019 R1 cannot handle?

In previous betas there were crashes with SpecialFolder. TempFolderitem also had nice crashes - even Xojo and Feedback were affected. I can’t reproduce the problem with starting applications.

The latest beta seems to have fixed all problems. My app - main app, helper apps, even the self-written installer - work fine now.

Ah. betas.
I coded around that (hopefully) by testing for the presence of temp folder before using it, and switching to a known writable area if it was unavailable.
I’ll watch the space.

Is that the only Catalina issue with Xojo 2019r1.1?

I’m hoping so, since I won’t be able to move forward with Xojo for the foreseeable future for reasons I can’t state here (and, yes, I do have a current licence for future versions).

I think the only remaining issue is that FolderItem.Launch does not work correctly.

I havent run into anyone reporting the issue ‘in the wild’ , but I dont know how many of my customers are using Catalina
(Wish they wouldnt…:> )
And I switched Launch methods pre-emptively already so that I can avoid any issues of that nature in currently shipping versions.
(Dont know if last years build used by people who didnt upgrade will have an issue with that)

To all software vendor here:

what have you done when Catalina first saw the lights, in terms of communication about it to your customers ?
(Example: I am working with the beta and I do not know -yet- if my software works on Catalina, etc. ?)

But … even that is sporadic. As I mentioned in another thread, I’ve seen the .Launch fail and then work when the same code is called on the specified executable again.

We sent out an email announcement to our macOS users and added warnings to our website:

June 19, 2019, macOS 10.15 Catalina notice

Apple’s next macOS version 10.15 Catalina is a beta-level release and not a released version of macOS. As such, you should not be installing it on mission critical systems where you are using tools like BRU PE or BRU Server to perform data backup operations. Also, until it is closer to the actual release of Catalina expected in October of 2019, TOLIS Group will not be testing beyond basic functionality under the beta releases. If you choose to install macOS 10.15 Catalina and run into issues with a BRU software solution, our only guidance will be that you revert the system to 10.14 or earlier and not upgrade to 10.15 until the OS is officially released in October, and TOLIS Group have made our full compatibility statement.

Nice Tim. (very) Good first step.

[quote=449426:@Emile Schwarz]what have you done when Catalina first saw the lights, in terms of communication about it to your customers ?
(Example: I am working with the beta and I do not know -yet- if my software works on Catalina, etc. ?)[/quote]

I have made an official statement to not, under any circumstances, update their servers to Catalina as the app simply won’t run. And yet I still cannot make a version that does even with a non-release version of Xojo. It’s not entirely Xojo’s fault as I have plugins compiled with ancient XCode versions that are 32 bit still even though I am working hard to rebuild those with new API’s. The developer who wrote them is long unable to bring them forward to a new XCode version without basically rewriting them from scratch anyway. So that is what I”m doing. wasting months of my life fixing things that aren’t broken and don’t have to be rebuilt at this time until people start buying Apple’s new hardware that isn’t even available yet. Then there is the problem with the new notarization which still doesn’t work well enough in the beta’s of Catalina for me to even know if I’ve got it right yet. I hate this new OS update so freaking much.

@ James:
I understand. Imagine what Apple Engineers may feel now :frowning:

They are like us, in deep feeling…

For what its worth: I just installed Catalina latest beta, then installed my main Xojo-built application. This app was built with 2019R1.1, then signed and packaged up with various entitlements and correct notarization using a combination of AppWrapper, Packages, and DMGCanvas. It runs perfectly on 10.14.6, including launching external applications using FolderItem.launch.

On Catalina, (10.15) the FolderItem.Launch calls ALL work perfectly as well.

So, if you are having problems getting external apps to launch using FolderItem.Launch, you likely need to revisit your notarization / entitlements / signing setup.

@James Sentman: you knew that a year ago.

Hu? Of course, you can test that. Download Tor for instance and you get that lovely BS message about malicious code.

Stupid warnings all over the place are NOT security. Does Apple even react to bug reports anymore? The SpecialFolder stuff is fixed but my computer still goes hot after each update.

What version of macOS did you sign your app on? DMGCanvas has problems when running on Catalina.

I signed on Mojave 10.14.5. Installed and tested resulting app in a Parallels Catalina VM.

I ran my tests in the IDE, so neither signing nor notarization had taken place. That probably explains the different results.

This is good news. But the flip side is, some apps may no run fully in the IDE now. I have several apps that run helpers, and that will no longer work in debug mode.

Maybe we need Dev. Stations with System Protection disabled? Would that work?

Isn’t that what the debugging identities for codesigning are for?

You can do without SIP. But you want to test what the users see.

[quote=449558:@Beatrix Willius]Isn’t that what the debugging identities for codesigning are for?

You can do without SIP. But you want to test what the users see.[/quote]

I really don’t know. Had not the passion to dig into this. Bought App Wrapper and was fine most of the time. :slight_smile:

SelectColor can only be used once on Catalina. The second time the app will blink out of existence.

I entered a Feedback case on August 3, 2019. The Catalina GM is out today and it still crashes. My app uses SelectColor heavily and will now be worthless in Catalina.

Can anyone suggest a workaound?