2012/12/6 Frank Marien <[email protected]>: > On 12/05/2012 08:30 PM, Ludovic Rousseau wrote: > >>> > >>> > If you still consider OSX to be a Unix, there it is hell because Apple >>> > still ships that ancient version.. We're considering packaging our >>> > own binary.. We don't like the idea and all of the >>> > risks/support/followup work it implies.. But what other choice do we >>> > have if we want to continue supporting OSX at all? > >> Another option is to work with the SmartCard Services project [1]. >> Apple externalized the maintenance of PC/SC lite and the project is >> now hosted on their Open Source forge. >> >> I am one of the maintainer of the project. In July 2009 I did fix some >> bugs. The fixed PC/SC lite version has been used in Lion released in >> 2011. See "Mac OS X Lion and smart cards status " [2] for the changes. >> >> So Apple can improve the pcsc-lite included in Mac OS X. But you have >> to do the job yourself. >> Maybe we can work together and do something for the next Mac OS X? > > Ludovic, > > Your blog posts are well known to us (my clients and myself) :-) > > But if Apple ships 17-month-old versions (almost 2.5 years by now), I > still call that "ancient" versions. The point is that "someone" :-) is > putting in all the effort, and we're certainly willing to contribute, > but Apple takes ages to ship that, it's not going to help our users > much: They can't wait for 2.5 years (and counting) for a fix.. > > We're currently in a situation where an Apple update of the JRE causes a > SEGV somewhere in the JNI borderlands between Java and pcsclite.. > Everything seems to indicate that the issue would not have occurred if > they'd only updated pcscd.. This has been the one single most-heard > comment in second line support for the past 2 years.. "yeah.. Ludovic > has fixed this years ago.. but Apple isn't shipping the fixed version.." > Apple users mostly refuse to believe us when we tell them that it's > "Apple's fault". So far it's been relatively minor issues but now, it's > become systemic and blocking.. > > So.. We're grudgingly arguing for shipping our own up-to-date "SmartCard > Services" pcsc-lite binary.. But I fear the support impact.. and that is > a powerful counter-argument, of course. It looks like we'll have little > choice though. So far, Apple has ignored our pleas and requests > consistently and for years, about anything. > > We seriously wonder if they're going to continue supporting PCSC at > all.. In which case it will be prudent to at least have our own binary > ready to ship.. > We might get away with it by bundling it so, by default, that only our > own programs are affected.. a wasteful way of doing things,.. But safer > in terms of impact.. We could still have an up-to-date binary to replace > Apple's ancient one system-wide, by explicit user choice. > > What do you think?
I fully understand the problem and your willing to provide your own PCSC lite version for Mac OS X. What I can propose is to distribute an updated version of pcsc-lite from the (Apple) SmartCard Services project. Even if Apple do not (yet) include an updated version in the current Mac OS X you can point your customers to an updated version and try to share the support with the "community". Bye, -- Dr. Ludovic Rousseau _______________________________________________ Muscle mailing list [email protected] http://lists.musclecard.com/mailman/listinfo/muscle_lists.musclecard.com
