←back to thread

How a 20 year old bug in GTA San Andreas surfaced in Windows 11 24H2

(cookieplmonster.github.io)
1371 points yett | 5 comments | 23 Apr 25 14:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.914s | source
Show context
userbinator ◴[23 Apr 25 21:50 UTC] No.43776998[source]▶
On Windows 11 24H2, more stack space was modified by a new implementation of Critical Sections.

IMHO this shows the downfall of Microsoft. Why did they do that? Critical sections have been there for many decades and should be basically bug-free by now. My best guess is someone thought they'd "improve" things and rewrote it, then made some microbenchmark that maybe showed the dubious improvement.

The other comment here mentions Raymond Chen, who wrote this article about why backwards-compatibility is very important (and arguably what got Microsoft into the position it's in today):

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20031224-00/?p=41...

and also this memorable case: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2281932

replies(2): >>43777844 #>>43778816 #
kittoes ◴[23 Apr 25 23:36 UTC] No.43777844[source]▶
Really? Someone depending on UB in their software represents the downfall of Microsoft?! What a hot take...
replies(1): >>43778235 #
1. devnullbrain ◴[24 Apr 25 00:41 UTC] No.43778235[source]▶
User has working software. User updates operating system. User has broken software.

That's a problem for the party trying to sell operating system updates.

replies(1): >>43778702 #
2. voidspark ◴[24 Apr 25 02:19 UTC] No.43778702[source]▶
The software was fundamentally broken before the OS update. It was working by pure random chance with undefined behaviour. It’s a C++ issue, not an OS issue. The same code compiled for another OS would have different random results.
replies(3): >>43779387 #>>43780796 #>>43792007 #
3. Uvix ◴[24 Apr 25 05:03 UTC] No.43779387[source]▶
While this is technically correct that doesn’t get the customer to put the blame where it belongs.
4. smallstepforman ◴[24 Apr 25 09:40 UTC] No.43780796[source]▶
Not a C++ issue, but a sloppy developer issue.
5. userbinator ◴[25 Apr 25 10:08 UTC] No.43792007[source]▶
The problem is hostile pedants who neglect to consider the human element.