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OS-Specific Bugs

Bugs that only occur for certain operating systems or platforms are not common and are most of the time results of OS-specific limitations or missing tools. Still, you might encounter a few bugs, mentioned on this page. The low amount of such bugs is as follows: Java (Base Language) is a platform-independent language. MPS and the IntelliJ platform also only contain a small amount of OS-specific code.

You only encounter serious issues with native code which is dependent on the platform. The JDK or JBR that you use, and the Java version can also play a role. For the last two factors, ensure everybody uses the same versions to not have to deal with sometimes odd error messages.

Windows

Based on the market share, you can assume that users and especially end users are Windows users. While it make sense in some companies to only focus on Windows, and use Windows-specific code, please consider the possibility that there might be other users in the future. Many MPS developers also use macOS. In other words: Don't use Windows fonts in the editor and deal with file paths in a generic way ⧉. Various file systems also handle permissions and case sensitivity differently. If you have the change, test your languages on multiple platforms.

Compilation from the command line might fail due to none ASCII chars.

The error message looks something like this:

1
[generate] NewLanguage\behavior\rtzj__BehaviorDescriptor.java : Invalid character constant (line: 27)
If this happens, set the environment variable JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS to -Dfile.encoding=UTF8 (MPS-23526 ⧉).

Tests are failing with a message that a filename or extension is too long (Windows).

The error message looks like this: Caused by: java.io.IOException: CreateProcess error=206, The filename or extension is too long. It can also look like this: Process fork failed. There is a path that is too long for Windows in the build script. Choose the option compressArgs in the test modules node to fix the issue (MPS-24137 ⧉).

Cannot run MPS.bat on Windows 10/11.

Create a link that runs the MPS.bat script and start this one instead. The Link target should look like this: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -command "& 'C:\Program Files\JetBrains\MPS_YOUR_VERSION\bin\mps.bat'"

contributed by: @HeikoBecker

Mac

You might run into issues with newer macOS versions. One of them is notarizing macOS software before distribution which is not supported by the mps-gradle-plugin. There were also changes introduced with the M1 chips (new architecture: arm64). MPS already provides additional downloads for the latest Macs (.dmg Apple Silicon). The commit can be found here ⧉. If you want to provide your own RCP, you might want to look at this commit. A separate version of JBR called jbr-osx-aarch64 might also be needed.

How do I get my defined environment variables?

Execute printenv on a shell.

Using com.mbeddr.mpsutil.datepicker doesn't work when the Look and Feel is set to macOS Light.

Use the default light theme. There is no other workaround at the moment (MPS-3388, MBEDDR-2203 ⧉).

Can't find TBItem with uid 'XY'.

This is an issue with MacBook Pros with touch bars. No workaround at the moment (MPS-31728 ⧉).

What other active bugs are there?

  • Standalone application: impossible to define application icon (MPS-32971 ⧉)

Linux

Autocompleting doesn't work with MPS + i3 (Linux window manager).

No solution at the moment (MPS-30499 ⧉).

The completion menu appears on the wrong screen in a multi-monitor setup (Linux+i3).

No solution at the moment (MPS-33689 ⧉).

Native Crashes

Native crashes are crashes where MPS crashes internally (C/C++ code), and an error dialog is shown. First, search the following Youtrack projects:

For crashes on macOS, have a look at Identifying the Cause of Common Crashes | developer.apple.com ⧉.

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