5 ms·

Using the date is obviously a kludge and does not match the semantics of the desired mechanism (3rd party specific drivers overriding baseline system drivers).

Using the date is obviously a kludge and does not match the semantics of the desired mechanism (3rd party specific drivers overriding baseline system drivers). Nothing profound about this kludge IMHO.

draw_down 10y ago
Yeah- it's something, alright. But "profound" is rather a stretch.
- acchow 10y ago
  Amazing how "bad hack" got labeled as "profound"
  - Skunkleton 10y ago
    Sounds like someone from Apple's marketing department got a software degree :)
  - astrodust 10y ago
    It's a profoundly bad hack. How can anyone justify this? Fix your driver negotiation mechanism. This is like a "Hm, well, I do like weekends and it's 4pm on a Friday..." solution.
  - gottam 10y ago
    It probably is a good hack from their perspective. Just think of all the "back hacks" windows has.
Asooka 10y ago
It also lets MS override the manufacturer driver in the future via an update.
- maxander 10y ago
  Imagine- MS pushes out a driver update where the drivers are dated to the actual day they were produced, causing them to necessarily and simultaneously override all custom drivers on every Windows box on the internet. That's not a feature, that's an existential risk to MS as a company.
ysavir 10y ago
But there is something profound here: That MicroSoft is willing to take a static informational figure (such as a date) and use it for other purposes while doing a poor job of documenting it and handling edge cases. That MicroSoft has let this system sit for 10 years is incredibly profound, in my opinion. Just not in a positive way.
- royjacobs 10y ago
  So how would you fix this, keeping in mind you are not allowed to touch the vendor driver's binaries in any way?
  - RickHull 10y ago
    Drivers have a priority field 0-255. Vendor drivers can only use 128-255. System drivers start at 255 baseline. Highest priority (0 is highest) always wins, and ties are broken with version or date comparison or what-have-you. Disclaimer: near zero forethought
    - monochromatic 10y ago
      > keeping in mind you are not allowed to touch the vendor driver's binaries in any way
      - DashRattlesnake 10y ago
        Default to 192 if an explicit priority is not set.
        krapp 10y ago
        What's certain to happen is all vendors setting all of their drivers to the highest priority possible, all the time.
        jessaustin 10y ago

draw_down 10y ago

Yeah- it's something, alright. But "profound" is rather a stretch.

acchow 10y ago
Amazing how "bad hack" got labeled as "profound"
- Skunkleton 10y ago
  Sounds like someone from Apple's marketing department got a software degree :)
- astrodust 10y ago
  It's a profoundly bad hack. How can anyone justify this? Fix your driver negotiation mechanism. This is like a "Hm, well, I do like weekends and it's 4pm on a Friday..." solution.
- gottam 10y ago
  It probably is a good hack from their perspective. Just think of all the "back hacks" windows has.

Asooka 10y ago

It also lets MS override the manufacturer driver in the future via an update.

maxander 10y ago
Imagine- MS pushes out a driver update where the drivers are dated to the actual day they were produced, causing them to necessarily and simultaneously override all custom drivers on every Windows box on the internet. That's not a feature, that's an existential risk to MS as a company.

ysavir 10y ago

But there is something profound here: That MicroSoft is willing to take a static informational figure (such as a date) and use it for other purposes while doing a poor job of documenting it and handling edge cases. That MicroSoft has let this system sit for 10 years is incredibly profound, in my opinion. Just not in a positive way.

royjacobs 10y ago
So how would you fix this, keeping in mind you are not allowed to touch the vendor driver's binaries in any way?
- RickHull 10y ago
  Drivers have a priority field 0-255. Vendor drivers can only use 128-255. System drivers start at 255 baseline. Highest priority (0 is highest) always wins, and ties are broken with version or date comparison or what-have-you. Disclaimer: near zero forethought
  - monochromatic 10y ago
    > keeping in mind you are not allowed to touch the vendor driver's binaries in any way
    - DashRattlesnake 10y ago
      Default to 192 if an explicit priority is not set.
      - krapp 10y ago
        What's certain to happen is all vendors setting all of their drivers to the highest priority possible, all the time.
        jessaustin 10y ago