back to article Summer's here, where's Windows 10 19H2? For Microsoft, spring ends whenever the heck it says so stop asking

Microsoft enlivened an otherwise deadly dull Windows 10 Insider build by revealing the corporation now defines its own seasons. Other than the appearance of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2 in the recent weeks, the last few builds of Windows 10 20H1, due for release some time next year, have been notable for, er, not …

  1. Hans 1
    Joke

    Redmond Influenza strain 19H2 to be released in spring 2020

    cf title

    1. J. R. Hartley

      Re: Redmond Influenza strain 19H2 to be released in spring 2020

      After 30 years, Windows is finally finished. No further updates. Thank you for being beta testers. We will now be winding down the company.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This gives you a good picture of how Windows 10 development is run...

    .. in a utterly confusing way. It looks how a team of marketdroids would run product development....

  3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Alternatively they could adopt the 1st movement of Mahler 1 as a theme tune - sometimes known as "Spring without end".

    The autumn release, of course, has an existing internet meme to adopt, Eternal September.

  4. Korev Silver badge
    Gimp

    To be fair...

    They have been hammered on these pages for some of the problems with the version from last autumn... It'd be better to have a version which has fewer problems and wait a month or so...

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: To be fair...

      Take a leaf out of Debian's book: give the next version a name to look forward to but the only give a release date when it's ready.

  5. JulieM Silver badge
    Coat

    Obligatory Pedant

    That should be

    IF (DateTime.Now > Spring) { WHILE (Windows != Done) ++Spring; }

    You don't care what the value of Spring was before you added 1 to it. You wasted CPU cycles, and possibly memory, making a copy of the previous value of Spring; and then you went and forgot all about it. It's a good job for you that computers don't have feelings; because if they did, yours would be well and truly pissed off.

    Anyway, I shouldn't be here. I've got a beam to chase .....

    1. Duncan Macdonald
      FAIL

      Re: Obligatory Pedant

      Spring is going to overflow - the While clause will not terminate - the time comparison needs to be in the While clause.

      Correct coding

      WHILE ((Windows != Done) && (DateTime.Now > Spring)) {++Spring;}

      =================

      ++Pedant;

      However as Windows is never Done - the first clause should be

      (Windows != PretendToBeWorking)

      1. JulieM Silver badge

        Re: Obligatory Pedant

        It's reading the value of Windows each time at the beginning of the loop; and as long as this is one of those system pseudo-variables that BASIC used to use, and responds to other pseudo-variables being written, it will work.

        Actually, maybe the pseudo-variables update asynchronously and the redundant pre-increment copy is a cunningly disguised clock slide ..... and a nice little trap for the unwary future maintainer!

    2. John70
      Coat

      Re: Obligatory Pedant

      "IF" and "WHILE" should be lowercase.

  6. colinb
    Coat

    bah, real dev's use Case Sensitive languages

    because, your know, we're hard.

    IF and WHILE indeed

    unless there's a MACRO in your pocket =>

    1. MatthewSt
      Joke

      Re: bah, real dev's use Case Sensitive languages

      Case Sensitive? I'd settle for apostrophes in the right place ;)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: bah, real dev's use Case Sensitive languages

      Only those who in their soul whishes to be a computer. Human beings are not case sensitive, nor their languages - even those languages that have stricter case rules are fully intelligible even when those rules aren't respected - as they are mostly "decorations" to make writings easier to read.

      But I'm going to deliver a language that requires a specific font to be compiled, and the font will be one of the less readable ones... I guess I will find a lot of "real programmers" who will believe that's the way to do it....

      Because unluckily too many are still confusing lack of memory and CPU cycles and shortcuts to make compilers code easier to write and less resource demanding as good design choices... that's explain a lot of actual IT, and very stupid UI designs.

  7. dajames

    Solstice

    Today is the 21st of June -- the summer solstice -- sometimes known as Midsummer's Day.

    I've never been able to work out why so many people seem to think that makes it the first day of summer?

    1. Diogenes

      Re: Solstice

      No its not. It is almost the start of winter here (1 July). MS have plenty of wiggle room it wont be spring here (live on that big island south of Indonesia) until 1 Sep

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Solstice

        Even there I guess seasons follow equinoxes and solstices, not months number randomly assigned by ancient rulers and priests with little clues about astronomy....

    2. MJB7

      Re: Solstice

      Mostly because the seasons lag the solstices. If we followed the solstices, "summer" would be last three weeks of May, June, July, and first week of August (roughly). Late August is a lot more like summery than mid May.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Solstice

        ???? Summer solstice is 20-21 June (Northern Hemisphere, 20-21 December on the other side) - where May ever enters in the picture???

        Late August is full Summer indeed, as it lasts until September 22-23 (20-21 March)

        I would suggest to read a good book about Astronomy, and avoid Google searches, and New Age/Wicca interpretations....

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "sometimes known as Midsummer's Day"

      Because not everybody follow Keltic traditions where solstices/equinoxes where in the middle of their "seasons" - anyway the ancient "seasons" may depend a lot on latitude (and daytime length), natural events (rains, etc.) harvest times, religious beliefs, and calendar errors accumulated over centuries.

      I.e. at high latitudes centering "Summer" around the period with the longest daylight make sense. At lower ones, the changes are less important, and harvests may last longer

      Remember that both Cesar, Augustus and Gregorius had to fix the calendar that was drifting away because of bad precision.

      Astronomer fixed seasons periods in a way that doesn't depend on local events, and is precisely measurable - and the Gregorian calendar ensures equinoxes and solstices happen in the same days.

  8. DavidCarter

    It'll be September anyway, named 1909?

  9. Michael Maxwell

    Endless Summer

    Ms wasn't the first to make the seasons stand still, you know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZsuQXKkPdw

  10. Kiwi
    Linux

    Loading Springtime..

    Please wait. Configuring updates..

    [Sometimes MS's foresight amazes me - they even got Groundhog Day in there...]

    Updates failed. Reverting changes. Please do not restart your solar system.

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