Path: news.mathworks.com!not-for-mail
From: "Steven Lord" <slord@mathworks.com>
Newsgroups: comp.soft-sys.matlab
Subject: Re: Last drop in a user's patience
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:11:49 -0500
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"Joaquim Luis" <jluis@--ualg--.pt> wrote in message 
news:gflcij$3rm$1@fred.mathworks.com...
>I have a many-many-MANY months*hours working time soft that works up till 
>R2008a.
> Now R2008b simply says things like this
>
> Warning: Calling MEX-file 'C:\SVN\mironeWC\lib_mex\set_gmt.dll'.
> MEX-files with .dll extensions will not execute in a future version of 
> MATLAB.
> Warning: Calling MEX-file 'C:\SVN\mironeWC\mexnc.dll'.
> MEX-files with .dll extensions will not execute in a future version of 
> MATLAB.
>
> and the program doesn't work anymore (no more or less, it just crashes).
> No future, just right now.

The _warning_ (not error) is informing you about a behavior that we plan to 
take in the future.

http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/rn/broifyr-1.html

There shouldn't, as far as I'm aware, be any change in behavior right now. 
If code that used to work is now crashing, there's a bug somewhere, and you 
should contact Technical Support so they can help investigate and report the 
problem to development to be fixed.

> ARE DLLs DEMONIC?

I don't know exactly why this change is being made, but if I had to guess 
it's just the next step on the deprecation process for the .dll extension, a 
process that has been in motion for a number of releases.

Back when Windows MEX-files were given the extension dll, we only supported, 
well at that point probably 16-bit Windows (3.1?  95?).  [That was probably 
significantly before my time at The MathWorks.]  We weren't in the situation 
we are now, where we support both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.  When we 
introduced 64-bit Windows, we introduced two new extensions: .mexw64 for 
64-bit Windows MEX-files and .mexw32 for 32-bit Windows MEX-files.  This was 
back in Release 14 with Service Pack 3 in 2005, as the Release Notes 
indicate:

http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/rn/f26-998197.html

Now that users have had three years to adjust to the new extensions, we're 
taking the next step on the deprecation path for the .dll extension.  I'm 
not certain, but simply changing the extension from .dll to .mexw32 may 
work; I haven't tested it.

> SORRY BUT THAT WAS THE LAST DROP IN THE POOL (NOT THE GLASS).
> NO MORE PATIENCE TO THE TMW NOTION OF BACK/FORTH COMPATIBILITY

Believe me when I say that backwards compatibility is very important to us. 
I participate in a fair share of meetings discussing new features, and 
whenever anyone in the room raises a concern that the new feature is 
backwards incompatible, we have a serious discussion about whether or not 
that's true, and if it is whether the "pain" caused by the incompatibility 
is worth it.  Often it is, but sometimes it's not, and we have made changes 
to features because of those discussions.  I tend to raise those concerns 
relatively often, given my background (entering our development organization 
from our technical support group) and my exposure to users on CSSM.

> I'M REALLY, BUT REALLY, PISSED OFF WITH TWM NOTION OF BACKWARD 
> COMPATIBILITY

If you feel that strongly about this change, contact Technical Support. 
While it's rare, we have changed our decision on whether or not to make an 
incompatible change like this in the past due to user feedback, particularly 
if you have a compelling reason why we should change our decision.

> I ALSO REMOVED ALL MY CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE FEX

I'm sorry to hear that, but that's your choice.

As a side note, it looks from the name of the file that you're working with 
that you're using netCDF files.  If so, you may be interested to learn that 
we've introduced support for that file format as part of MATLAB itself in 
Release R2008b:

http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/matlab_prog/brrbr9v-1.html

-- 
Steve Lord
slord@mathworks.com