FWIW… Apple did this change before on iOS (starting with 16.2 beta if I remember well). Now it did the same thing starting with macOS 13.2 + Security update. The Build version is a good thing to have there… and now we have fixed it already. It is a pity Apple didn’t the change before we released 2022r4, of course, but… :-/
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If I WERE reduced to parsing user-viewable strings I would code it way more defensively than “take the nth word” anyway. Make sure there are at least n words, and that word n looks reasonable, backtrack maybe if not, etc. I am reduced to this all the time in interpreting user reports, extracting report dates from headers and the like. I’m at 15 years and counting with some of these parsing routines and virtually all submitted data change eventually in some gratuitous fashion or other.
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But… we need a r4.1 patch version ASAP or an avalanche of problems is coming, soon lots of users’ apps will start to crash.
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Yes, we are aware of that; but, please, let’s don’t forget that macOS 13.2 plus the recent Security update are on Beta!!
Thank you so much all for reporting it and all the additional information provided!
The “let them start to crash, then we will start to worry and act about it” is not the best policy.
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The “let them start to crash, then we will start to worry and act about it” is not the best policy.
No one said that, @Rick_Araujo…
Yes, we are aware of that
About the need for a .1 release.
In fact, we act: https://tracker.xojo.com/xojoinc/xojo/-/issues/71254
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I haven’t a clue why normal users love to install beta versions of macOS. Today I got 3 reports of the NOE on start.
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I know.
- They love shiny things.
- They THINK that Apple is careful and won’t break things. Beta is just a technical name for some.
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I’ve used AXOSVersion since 2020 Written by @Javier_Menendez, and have made some modification for this macOS 13.2, if someone like to test :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ef25f0xbqg0bz1o/AXOSVersion.xojo_binary_project?dl=1
So you don’t trust the Xojo System.Version ?
No since I discovered this code originally from That’s kind of sad.
I used my own code too, then I decided to trust and migrated to the Xojo option.
Just another fyi…
Those that haven’t updated to API 2 yet ( 
) won’t be affected by this issue in their built applications (but obviously by the current Xojo IDE’s not working any longer).
This good old API 1 code still works perfectly fine in a macOS Universal .app built with Xojo 2022r4:
Dim iMajor, iMinor, iBug As Integer
if (not System.Gestalt("sys1", iMajor)) then iMajor = 0
if (not System.Gestalt("sys2", iMinor)) then iMinor = 0
if (not System.Gestalt("sys3", iBug)) then iBug = 0
So “Gestalt” might have stopped working, but Xojo seems to have implemented it’s “Gestalt”-wrapper in a way that works fine - even with Ventura 13.2 beta and this Fast Security Update.
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I’m not a religious man but I feel a bible quote is appropriate here:
“let he who is without sin cast the first stone”
Xojo messed up and there’s a bug in the IDE. Who here hasn’t made a mistake too? I don’t care that the Apple docs say not to parse the string, programmers are always implementing hacks to make a complex app work and occasionally you get bitten by it.
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Apple maybe is preserving it a bit longer, just it. It’s not removed yet. But following the manuals, it should be avoided after 10.8, because it will be.
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Thanks!
Has anyone filed a Feedback case (and or used up a Technical Support Inicident) with Apple about this? If you told Apple:
- the new version string format with two sets of parentheses breaks thousands of deployed apps, some of which can not be updated
- if you go back to the older format with only one set of parentheses, the apps will not break.
It’s not impossible Apple might revert the change?
I think Xojo inc should make this request of Apple and let us know the Feedback case # so we can sign on…
You are kidding right? Apple said in the docs with other words “this is a pure informational localized text with random organization that can go crazy and change to whatever we want at any point, don’t try to parse it! Use the provided API to know the correct version numbers”.
The outcome to a request like that should be “Dear Devs, LOL, read the docs next time? AFAWK, you guys are the only ones with such problem in the whole world, the rest had read, fix your sh1t, LOL”.
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And Xojo fixed it. Just recompile the broken apps, make a new dot release available to the few currently affected. Devs with lower than 22R4.1 SHOULD upgrade, if not, they must write workarounds and never call System.Version, also they must avoid upgrading their macOS to 13.x+ while doing so.
Soon a 13.x will supersede that (a) patch and the bugged versions will return to “not crash” at that point anyway. No need to ask for it.