[Gretl-devel] Re: release? and funcerr() revisited
On Tue, 24 Mar 2020, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti wrote:
On Tue, 24 Mar 2020, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Mar 2020, Allin Cottrell wrote:
>
>> I'm thinking that an early 2020b release would be good, to address the
>> macOS Catalina security issue (about which we'll probably hear more).
Oh, another thing: if we're releasing soon I'd like to propose a few
enhanncements to our ODBC apparatus. (Background info: Allin and Artur have
been working on ODBC recently and a few new features were introduced.)
[...]
The ODBC enhancements Jack mentioned are certainly worthy, but it
seems to me it would take a while to implement and test them. So I'd
prefer to go ahead and release after testing more rigorously the
changes we've already made since 2020a.
Since macOS is the driver here, I'd like to try to explain the
Catalina issue as I see it. If actual macOS experts disagree with my
interpretation, please speak up.
Applications like gretl, which use a third-party GUI toolkit such as
GTK on macOS, require for their correct operation that several
environment variables are set. It has long been standard practice to
use a shell script to (a) set the environment then (b) call the
actual program binary. This has worked for years, but it's not
compatible with the new Catalina security model. The symptom is
that, even once it's successfully installed, gretl is not eligible
for access to filespace such as the user's Desktop.
Shortly after the 2020a release I revised our macOS build, moving
all the environment setup into C code and getting rid of the
start-up shell script. I understand that as modified there's no
problem with granting gretl access to the Desktop etc.
What this means at present is that if Catalina users want properly
functional gretl they have to install a snapshot.
If I understand correctly, this may not be the end of Catalina
issues, as Apple tightens security further this year ("notarization"
is the buzzword). But if we do a 2020b soon at least we'll have a
release that works properly on current Catalina.
Allin