Re: st: Stata 13/12 for Mac and Mavericks

[Alfonso Sánchez-Peñalver <alfonso.statalist@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

I want to thank StataCorp for this message and that they are working to work around a bug that is from someone else. I find it curious that the problem has to do with Java simply because when I upgraded both my iMac and MacBook to Mavericks over the last two nights, as I first run Mavericks they asked me to install a version of Java runtime. Sorry, I don’t remember the version number. I found it curious that Mavericks wouldn’t come with it loaded in the package we were downloading but did check for it when starting up.

Again, thanks for the heads-up.

Alfonso Sanchez-Penalver

On Oct 24, 2013, at 5:03 PM, Sergiy Radyakin <serjradyakin@gmail.com> wrote:

> For the record, this is the best informative message that I've seen
> for a while of exactly the kind I am paying attention to (despite not
> being a Mac user). It gives the users an advance warning of a
> potential problem, describes the problem itself, and describes the
> areas possibly affected. I really love the way it is written. Thank
> you, Chinh. I wish there were more messages like this from StataCorp
> (but not more of the bugs of course).
> 
> Now I just wonder whether both Apple and Oracle pointed at each other?
> or both admitted the bug as their own?    :)
> 
> Best, Sergiy
> 
> 
> On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 4:10 PM,  <cnguyen@stata.com> wrote:
>> We have been receiving questions about whether Stata 13 (and Stata 12) are
>> compatible with the latest Mac OS X, "Mavericks".
>> 
>> The short answer is yes, with the caveat that we are releasing an update to
>> Stata 13 next week to work around a bug which is either in Mavericks or in
>> Java when run on Mavericks.  It makes us feel better to know that the bug
>> isn't in Stata, but it can affect Stata nonetheless, so we are finalizing a
>> workaround.  Stata 12 is not affected by this.
>> 
>> Let me provide a few more details on this bug for those interested.  As I
>> said, the bug is either in Mavericks or in Java on Mavericks.  When a C
>> program like Stata invokes Java code on Mavericks, the size of the memory
>> "stack" available to the C program is changed when it should not change.  This
>> can lead to a future crash.  We have reached out to both Apple and Oracle to
>> report this interaction between their products, but neither has yet released a
>> fix although they have both are aware of the issue.
>> 
>> Only a few features in Stata 13 use Java, namely the Project Manager, the GUI
>> for the -power- command, the -import delimited- command and GUI, https and ftp
>> protocols (regular http is not affected), and the Mata _docx*() functions.  To
>> trigger the bug, you have to first use one of those features yet you may still
>> not encounter the bug.  If you don't use one of the above features, or you are
>> using Stata 12, there is no chance of the bug affecting you.
>> 
>> -Chinh Nguyen
>> cnguyen@stata.com
>> *
>> *   For searches and help try:
>> *   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
>> *   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
>> *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
> *
> *   For searches and help try:
> *   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> *   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
> *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/


*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/