PlatformHooks.AppName getter blocks indefinitely because of a deadlock

[andreiasandei]

When the AppName getter calls result.Task.Wait(), this blocks the calling thread, which is the UI thread in this case. When the await Package.Current.InstalledLocation.GetFileAsync("AppxManifest.xml") call finishes, it will attempt to run its continuation on the UI thread, but this thread is blocked waiting for the toRun method to finish, which results in a deadlock.

This is better explained here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11316438/call-to-await-getfileasync-never-returns-and-app-hangs-in-winrt-app (see Stephen Cleary's answer).

I see that this pattern is implemented in many property getters throughout the SDK and is a potential deadlock source. I think async methods should be used instead of readonly properties in these cases.

[richardjrossiii]

Thanks for the report! It would appear you are correct, but the good thing is that this only applies to tasks awaited on with the await keyword, which we don't use in the main parts of the SDK.

I'll submit a PR shortly that cleans up all our usages of await.