1. I definitely screwed up and I take full responsibility for the mistakes that were made. As I have stated, I will be making changes to ensure changes are tested across multiple versions of Windows 10. I may also decide to limit the number of versions of Windows 10 I support (perhaps the last 3 updates or so) so that I don't have to do a full regression test across 5+ updates on 5 different VMs. I'm just one developer currently working multiple jobs so I don't have the bandwidth to test that many versions without it having a very serious impact on the amount of time it takes to deliver any update.
2. I was not forcing any user to to upgrade Windows - I was just suggesting that as a workaround until I was able to get the update approved through Microsoft. There is no option to downgrade software through the Microsoft Store, so I'm not sure how a crash could be dealt with except an update of the application. I'm not sure how much experience you have with UWP applications and the Microsoft store, but the approval process seriously hampers my ability to respond to issues quickly. That's no excuse for releasing software with serious bugs, but I can't prevent all bugs from occurring as the application has too many options and variables with user provided libraries to cover everything. In this case, yes, I should have tested the application on multiple versions of Windows 10, but I wasn't even aware that I was accessing functionality that wasn't supported across all versions of Windows. I was just calling a simple method in Visual Studio, and there is no information in any of Microsoft's APIs in Visual Studio indicating there is a problem. Calling IsLoaded on a UI component seems like an innocent thing to do that should be included in the base SDK. I now know that I have to look up pretty much any API call I use into any component in order to verify it's safe. I have dealt with fragmentation a great deal with Android, but at least there, Google warns you about incompatibilites when you build your code, as it's not always obvious what functionality is supported for each SDK level.
3. I was just suggesting that it could be beneficial to have willing users test out builds before the official release. As I mentioned earlier, there are a huge number of settings, and with user generated libraries, it's not plausible for me to test every possible combination. This is not a replacement for me testing the software - it's just something that could be done in addition to that to help reduce the rate of errors. Beta testing is built into Google Play, the Microsoft Store, the Amazon App Store, HockeyApp, etc. If it was not useful as a tool, I don't think so much work would be done to include support for it.
4. I will plan on setting up VMs for specific versions of Windows 10 and just run them with no internet. I'll also set up the updates to be postponed just in case.
I will do everything I can in the future to prevent these kinds of issues when possible. The issue some users are experiencing with the app not loading now (separate from the issue with incompatible API call) is something that I'm not sure I could ever prevent. I have tested on multiple versions of Windows on 6 devices and none of them demonstrate this issue. Users that have been experiencing it have said it suddenly goes away. Others update Windows 10 and the issue vanishes. I have one user who is experiencing this issue who is testing builds for me, but so far no answers have been found. It's issues like these that, if I can't reproduce it, I can't prevent it from occurring. I can only respond proactively to try and address the issue for the small number of users who are encountering it.
I appreciate your feedback.
Mike
2. I was not forcing any user to to upgrade Windows - I was just suggesting that as a workaround until I was able to get the update approved through Microsoft. There is no option to downgrade software through the Microsoft Store, so I'm not sure how a crash could be dealt with except an update of the application. I'm not sure how much experience you have with UWP applications and the Microsoft store, but the approval process seriously hampers my ability to respond to issues quickly. That's no excuse for releasing software with serious bugs, but I can't prevent all bugs from occurring as the application has too many options and variables with user provided libraries to cover everything. In this case, yes, I should have tested the application on multiple versions of Windows 10, but I wasn't even aware that I was accessing functionality that wasn't supported across all versions of Windows. I was just calling a simple method in Visual Studio, and there is no information in any of Microsoft's APIs in Visual Studio indicating there is a problem. Calling IsLoaded on a UI component seems like an innocent thing to do that should be included in the base SDK. I now know that I have to look up pretty much any API call I use into any component in order to verify it's safe. I have dealt with fragmentation a great deal with Android, but at least there, Google warns you about incompatibilites when you build your code, as it's not always obvious what functionality is supported for each SDK level.
3. I was just suggesting that it could be beneficial to have willing users test out builds before the official release. As I mentioned earlier, there are a huge number of settings, and with user generated libraries, it's not plausible for me to test every possible combination. This is not a replacement for me testing the software - it's just something that could be done in addition to that to help reduce the rate of errors. Beta testing is built into Google Play, the Microsoft Store, the Amazon App Store, HockeyApp, etc. If it was not useful as a tool, I don't think so much work would be done to include support for it.
4. I will plan on setting up VMs for specific versions of Windows 10 and just run them with no internet. I'll also set up the updates to be postponed just in case.
I will do everything I can in the future to prevent these kinds of issues when possible. The issue some users are experiencing with the app not loading now (separate from the issue with incompatible API call) is something that I'm not sure I could ever prevent. I have tested on multiple versions of Windows on 6 devices and none of them demonstrate this issue. Users that have been experiencing it have said it suddenly goes away. Others update Windows 10 and the issue vanishes. I have one user who is experiencing this issue who is testing builds for me, but so far no answers have been found. It's issues like these that, if I can't reproduce it, I can't prevent it from occurring. I can only respond proactively to try and address the issue for the small number of users who are encountering it.
I appreciate your feedback.
Mike