4D finds 'serious issue' with new Intel Macs and issues fix

If you are the proud owner of one of the new Intel-based Macs, then this is an issue you need to be aware of. 4D has discovered a bug in the latest version of the Mac OS, 10.4.8, which causes problems when "rounding and truncating" numbers.  A fix has now been released.

Since receiving their warning we have run some tests and can confirm that this issue does cause problems in Enterprise 6. Put simply, if you have anything to do with entering sales or purchase orders or the sales, purchase and nominal ledgers, then you must install the fix.

To find out whether your system falls into this category, go to the Apple menu and select 'About this Mac'. The window that appears tells you which version of the operating system, and what the processor is. If these say 10.4.8 and Intel respectively, then this message applies to you.

Rounding is the procedure that rounds a number up or down to the nearest decimal point and is used widely in the financial modules, notably in the calculation of VAT. One result of this bug can be that VAT on a Sales Order Item (say) can be out by 1p. It also appears that the Total Amount field on an Order item, which should be the the sum of the Sales Amount and VAT Amount, can be wrongly calculated by 1p.

The error occurs at the moment that amounts are calculated on, say a Sales Order Item, which would normally be when amounts are entered.
As a result, any error can be corrected by simply having another user, who does not use this particular combination, go in and edit the record in question.

We are not aware of any issues resulting from this bug on Daybook software other than Enterprise 6.

4D and Apple have now arrived at an interim solution. This is a patch which rolls back some of the changes in Mac OS 10.4.8 to 10.4.7 . You can download this from http://www.4D.com/1048fix.html.

We recommend that all affected users install this. 

Interim Fix for Mac OS X 10.4.8 on Intel

Last week we announced we would be producing 4D 2004.5 which would have a workaround for rounding and truncation problems experienced with Mac OS X 10.4.8 on the Intel platform. We are still committed to this course of action.

Our work on 4D 2004.5 is making good progress. In the meantime we are very happy to announce an interim solution. Apple and 4D have created a patch which rolls back the mathematical changes made by Apple in Mac OS X 10.4.8 to those of Mac OS X 10.4.7.

Although there were some mathematical issues on this version of the OS as well, these issues were much less severe and affected an extremely small percentage of 4D applications. If your application worked well on 10.4.7, you should have no issues after applying this patch.

Following extensive testing we are certifying this fix for the 4D 2004 product line.

This patch is not certified for the 4D 2003 product line as 4D 2003 isn't certified to run on the Mac Intel platform. The limited testing we made with the 4D 2003 product line showed that the patch appears to be successful there as well.

Our goal remains to release 4D 2004.5 as soon as we can to ensure a full resolution of this issue. Meanwhile this solution will alleviate the problem until the expected availability of 4D 2004.5.

We want to thank Apple for their commitment to the 4D Community, and to thank you for your patience and support.

To download this patch, please visit: http://www.4D.com/1048fix.html.

Here is the original release from 4D

Urgent: 4D 2004 and Mac OS X 10.4.8 on the Mac Intel Platform

We have verified a serious issue with the latest revision of Mac OS X 10.4.8 on Intel-based machines. Apple has confirmed a bug that causes rounding and truncation issues in 4D-based applications. Apple has informed us that this bug should be fixed in the next revision of the Mac OS X 10.4. However, in the meantime, we are aware of the severity of this bug, such that we are now recommending that Mac OS X 10.4.8 on Intel be avoided for any 4D-based applications.


We are committed to supporting the 4D 2004 product line on Mac Intel via Rosetta and as such confirm that we are actively pursuing a workaround for this issue.


As you know, 4D is a large and powerful application, so we do require some time to ensure that we identify every issue caused by this Apple bug. We will add this workaround to the next revision of the 4D 2004.5 beta. We ask for your help and support in ensuring that our workaround does remove any manifestations of this bug by comprehensively testing your applications with this beta release.


We currently plan to release this as a public beta to ensure that we provide as much exposure as possible. This will ensure our workaround is effective in 100% of the cases.


In addition, we are accelerating the release cycle of 4D 2004.5 to get this version into your hands as soon as possible.

Please note

In Enterprise 6 VAT is calculated on individual lines, which are then totalled, rather than on the entire invoice. Even with normal rounding this can on occasion produce VAT totals which are 1p or so slightly more than they should be. This is quite acceptable and allows the system to combine different tax rates on the same invoice.

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