2023-11-07 18:00:07
One new report from the journalist Mark Gurman (and Bloomberg) points out that the Apple halted development of the next major updates to its operational systems for iPhones, iPads, Macs e Apple Watches — which should be announced and launched next year — to “eradicate code flaws”.
This interruption would have been announced to Apple employees last week and was intended to “help maintain quality control” of Apple’s software — following what was described as a “proliferation of bugs in the first versions”.
Focus on quality
Gurman recalled that, in recent years, Apple has placed more emphasis on the quality of its systems — even when this required postponing new features. In 2018, the head of software engineering, Craig Federighidelayed several features until the following year, amid concerns that the software was too buggy.
In 2019, he overhauled the way Apple develops software in yet another attempt to avoid problems, and also adopted what is known at Apple as “The Covenant” — the agreement requires that employees never knowingly allow “regressions” (when a previously working software no longer operates correctly) and correct errors quickly.
Upcoming systems
However, the journalist said that the latest round of development of the future systems did not go so smoothly, as Apple’s software engineering management team found many “leaks” (a term for bugs missed during internal testing).
Therefore, the division made the decision — unusual, it must be said — to pause development of all new features for a week to work on fixing the bugs, so the suspension will end this week.
A person familiar with the situation told the report that the problem lies in the team’s lack of alignment — which is no surprise, as it would be made up of 10,000 employees.
It’s a problem of 10,000 people typing code and completely breaking the operating system.
Last month, the company completed the first version of future operating systems for iPhones, iPads and Macs. This iteration is known as “M1” as it is the first important point.
In this sense, Apple would have interrupted the start of work on the second point, known as “M2”. The suspension also applies to a future iOS 17 update, more precisely the iOS 17.4 — which is expected to be released in March 2024.
The change also affected future versions of visionOS, the Vision Pro software, which will be released early next year. Gurman, however, said it is unlikely that delays in the system’s development will delay the product’s launch.
A necessary evil, right?
1699381709
#Apple #paused #efforts #iOS #systems #fix #bugs
