Hi Mr Mike. This isn't really a correction but I thought this was probably the best place for this comment on the book (Which I am really enjoying/finding useful).
On Page 391 you find section T1.4 of the logo testing questionable. This is the testing for Windows version checking.
This has to do with properly dealing with the version number returned by the operating system. There used to be a great problem with persuading programmers to use >= rather than = when testing version numbers for install (and sometimes running). The number of programs that checked they were on DOS 5 rather than DOS 4 and so stopped either installing and or working (or locked off features) when DOS 6 shipped was quite high (Microsoft had the SETVER command to help address this).
Or there is testing the operating system rather than looking for the particular features such as DirectX version. A number of game programs refused to install on NT and only installed on 9x. Even when the version of NT was Windows 2000 with full DirectX Support. Ask Mr Spector about the -lgntforce argument for the setup program of Thief (used to bypass this).
As you can imagine this was a big problem when Windows XP home shipped. It was to get round a lot of the programs that did this that Microsoft created the Application Compatibility Toolkit (many of the applications supported are actually games).
How they test this I don't know (special machines that report Windows version 666?
but they want to make certain that you still try to install on the next version.
I hope you find this informative.
Alasdair Russell (Dhericean)
On Page 391 you find section T1.4 of the logo testing questionable. This is the testing for Windows version checking.
This has to do with properly dealing with the version number returned by the operating system. There used to be a great problem with persuading programmers to use >= rather than = when testing version numbers for install (and sometimes running). The number of programs that checked they were on DOS 5 rather than DOS 4 and so stopped either installing and or working (or locked off features) when DOS 6 shipped was quite high (Microsoft had the SETVER command to help address this).
Or there is testing the operating system rather than looking for the particular features such as DirectX version. A number of game programs refused to install on NT and only installed on 9x. Even when the version of NT was Windows 2000 with full DirectX Support. Ask Mr Spector about the -lgntforce argument for the setup program of Thief (used to bypass this).
As you can imagine this was a big problem when Windows XP home shipped. It was to get round a lot of the programs that did this that Microsoft created the Application Compatibility Toolkit (many of the applications supported are actually games).
How they test this I don't know (special machines that report Windows version 666?
but they want to make certain that you still try to install on the next version.I hope you find this informative.
Alasdair Russell (Dhericean)
Gamma Testing - Where testing is extended to the full user community (AKA Shipping the Program)