ARC & Quicksilver

[Patrick Robertson]

Morning all

We are almost done closing pull requests ready for the 64 bit code merge. So we're well on track with our deadlines for the 64 bit builds and v1.0.0 :)

The recent implementation of the crash reporter that uploads crash reports to QSApp.com has appeared very useful, but somewhat... depressing. As of the release of Quicksilver 2 days ago, we have already had over 150 crash reports for QS ß3928.

Most of the reports seem to be of a similar manner relating to either CFRelease calls or NSAutoreleasePools being popped early.

It always been a goal for us to convert QS to ARC, but seeing the number of reports here, and the clear instabilities in QS for many users, I'd like to push the switch, and hopefully get it done during the current code freeze period, straight after we merge 64 bit.

I know that there are a few QS devs are on 10.6 and running Xcode 3.2. Obviously, converting to ARC would mean that Xcode 3.2 can no longer be used. But Xcode 4.2 does indeed run on Snow Leopard, so our 10,6 devs would still be able to build and run QS from source.

For those of you who are on 10.6 and would like to upgrade to Xcode 4.2, it appears you must be a paid subscriber to Apple's developer programme. I'm sure we could come agreement as to obtaining Xcode 4.2 :)

Those wanting to see a sample of the 100s of reports: let me know and I can send you a .zip file.

I know this will be a pain for some devs, but I think it is a hardship we must endure to ensure we can keep on improving Quicksilver.

I have added a proposed amendment to the 'Road to v1.0' thread

[Rob McBroom]

On May 18, 2012, at 3:35 AM, Patrick Robertson wrote:

I know that there are a few QS devs are on 10.6 and running Xcode 3.2. Obviously, converting to ARC would mean that Xcode 3.2 can no longer be used. But Xcode 4.2 does indeed run on Snow Leopard, so our 10,6 devs would still be able to build and run QS from source.

I’m not so sure about that. I was reading the article on moving to ARC that you referred to the other day and saw this in the FAQ:

Can I develop applications for Mac OS X with ARC using Snow Leopard?

No. The Snow Leopard version of Xcode 4.2 doesn’t support ARC at all on Mac OS X, because it doesn’t include the 10.7 SDK. Xcode 4.2 for Snow Leopard does support ARC for iOS though, and Xcode 4.2 for Lion supports both Mac OS X and iOS. This means you need a Lion system to build an ARC application that runs on Snow Leopard.

-- 
Rob McBroom
<http://www.skurfer.com/>