ASCOM Platform 7.1 - Update 3

Installer

The installer is located in the "Assets" section at the end of these release notes

The Platform requires the following Windows and .NET versions:

• Windows 10 build 1809 (October 2018 release) or later
• .NET 3.5 to be installed (this will be installed automatically on Windows 10 and 11.)
• .NET 4.8 to be installed

Changes and fixes in Platform 7.1 Update 3

• Fixed - Widely reported issues in Platform 7.1 Update 2 where TraceLogger returned ProfilePersistenceException - Timed out waiting for TraceLogger mutex exceptions causing many clients and drivers to fail.
• Logging performance has been improved.
• A new option (Use TraceLogger mutex synchronisation) has been added to the Diagnostics application to revert to previous
  logging behaviour if necessary.

Note for developers - TraceLogger

• The default locking mechanic in TraceLogger is now an instance local lock instead of a global mutex.
  • Since its introduction in 2009, TraceLogger has used a global Windows mutex to synchronise writing to log files.
    The impact was that only one log message could be written at a time across all instances of TraceLogger and all applications.
  • The change was made because an instance local lock is sufficient to protect the file being written and allows concurrent writing of log files.
  • It is strongly recommended that the new default lock synchronisation is used because it eliminates inter-process synchronisation and does not cause application issues due to mutex timeouts.
  • This is not believed to be a breaking change and end-user and developer options are available to revert the mechanic if necessary.
• A new TraceLogger property TraceLogger.UseMutexSynchronisation has been added to activate the original global mutex synchronisation mechanic if logging synchronisation between processes is required.

Installer SHAs

Name: ASCOMPlatform713.4851.exe
Size: 141668224 bytes : 135 MiB
SHA256: 307b8e32699bc75f12bcaa52f79ea2edcd245ee40066f0271ae47ace8411fea0
SHA3-256: 1dc4f4e3b53cbd5c52fba55dcc2f1d7a298dba785f26eaead45523ee99529c16