https://bencollier.net/2016/03/unable-to-open-links-in-safari-mail-or-messages-o...

ceejayoz · on March 30, 2016

OK, so users with a particular app had Safari issues, the app got patched, and Apple's planning on fixing their end of the bug per http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/28/its-not-just-you-clicking-o.... "Booking.com associates its app with all sorts of domains — too many domains to be precise. With 2.4MB worth of domain-name-to-deep-link entries, Safari and other apps crash when iOS checks links against its Universal Link database because this database is too big."

Your criticism seems doubly odd now. Should Apple pause all Safari development whenever a bug is encountered? What are you proposing?

edit: Since I can't reply:

> Any app with a link association file that had too many links can cause Safari to totally stop working.

Yes, there's apparently a bug, triggered by the rare apps that pad out the file to enormous sizes. Not sure why you felt the need to spend ten minutes updating your post with every mention of it you could find (along with unrelated stuff from 2015).

> This has been discussed to death already, you are very late to the party here.

I'm extremely sorry I missed a bit of tech news about an edge-case bug that doesn't affect me. I'll try harder in the future.

> It's totally within the realms of possibility that Apple can do more frequent bug fixes and develop new features.

OK, but from the looks of the dates on those articles, this bug has been known about for about a week. Do you always fix every reported bug in a week or less, or do they sometimes take a little while to fix and QA? iOS has a bit of a larger user footprint to consider, too. Given there's a workaround - patch the apps with bloated link associations - I'm dubious of the need to rush an update here.

edit 2:

> edit: you can reply, press the link that takes you to my direct comme t and hit reply.

No, I can't. "Submitting too quickly".

ricardobeat · on March 31, 2016

There is no workaround, patching the site association file only prevents the issue for new users. Everyone else still has a non-functional browser for a week - I'd say that warrants an urgent patch.

chris_wot · on March 30, 2016

Except they didn't. Any app with a link association file that had too many links can cause Safari to totally stop working. Try to do your research before putting words in my mouth. This has been discussed to death already, you are very late to the party here.

I also never said that Apple should pause development. Not once. It's totally within the realms of possibility that Apple can do more frequent bug fixes and develop new features. I work on LibreOffice and have back ported bug fixes frequently into old versions. If LO can do it, then so can Apple.

Your assumption of bad faith reflects badly on you, not me.

edit: you can reply, press the link that takes you to my direct comment and hit reply.

I spent the time giving you so many links because I went to Google News and typed in "Safari link crashing Apple" and literally hundreds of news sites were reporting it. It would have taken you a few moments to check this yourself. You can't complain that I've provided lots of links to the issue. Now you know.

And yes, it is Apple's problem that Safari stops working because of a bug in their link association file processing. You state that it is caused "by the rare apps that pad out the file to enormous sizes", except that is a very popular app, so popular that there were so many users that got bitten by this bug that pretty much every news site on the planet reported the issue.

So it wasn't an "edge-case" bug that only affected a few people - it seems to have affected tens or hundreds of thousands of people. Possibly millions. And yes, if there was a security issue the fix would be fine pretty quickly. But you miss the point - even nasty non-security related issues are fixed quicker than a three month time frame. Normally within a month, month and a half. And we maintain at least two versions of LO, unlike Apple who only maintain one version of their OS at any point in time.

As for you putting words in my mouth, please stop doing that. Thanks.

Also: there's a chance you've been rate limited. That message indicates that. Email hn@ycombinator.com to request it be removed and have them explain why it occurred.

Edit 2: I've emailed to request your rate limit be removed - given it is as much my fault as anyone's this got do heated.