Anything with this flag can change or be removed with no warning.

There are a few comments:

  • Let's say that the developers changed something in new versions of the DBMS. Is this a problem?

    It is enough to check Caché Recent Upgrade Checklists, where usually there is a ready list of changes that may affect existing user code, for example.

    Note that this can apply to absolutely any member of a class, and not even marked as [Internal]. Suffice it to recall the recent story with JSON support.

  • For a class does not exist flag [Internal], the warning is only on the level of comments.

    As for the other members of the class, according to the documentation this flag is for other purposes, namely:

    Internal class members are not displayed in the class documentation. This keyword is useful if you want users to see a class but not see all its members. proof
  • In any case, the final choice for developer.

Does this example need to handle this?

Correct, of course, to close the device:

#include %systemInclude

#dim cDev As %String $IO

; see "dir /?" and RunCommandViaZF()
##class(%Net.Remote.Utility).RunCommandViaCPIPE(...,.dev,.con)
/*
...
*/
c:($get(dev)'=""dev:"I"
cDev
Also, do you not worry that its an internal class?

No, since for me internal ≠ deprecated.

However, given the openness of the source code, you can make own similar method, thereby to protect yourself from possible issues in the future.

<...> but maybe there's a better solution?

Yes, of course.

E.g. (for Windows x64):

#include %systemInclude

; see "dir /?"
##class(%Net.Remote.Utility).RunCommandViaCPIPE($$$FormatText("dir /A-D /B /S %1",$$$quote("C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\InterSystems")),,.con)
; string -> array
##class(%ListOfDataTypes).BuildValueArray($lfs($e(con,1,*-2),$$$NL),.array)
zw array

Refine your version $zv. Perhaps in older versions there were bugs that were then fixed.

Simple test:

Class my.children Extends %Persistent
{

Property p1;

Relationship parent As my.parent [ Cardinality = parent, Inverse = children ];

Method %OnConstructClone(
  object As %RegisteredObject,
  deep As %Boolean = 0,
  ByRef cloned As %String) As %Status [ Private, ServerOnly = 1 ]
{
  i%p1 = object.p1 _ " cloned"
  $$$OK
}
}

Class my.parent Extends %Persistent
{

Property p1;

Relationship children As my.children [ Cardinality = children, Inverse = parent ];

ClassMethod Fill()
{
  ;d ##class(my.parent).Fill()
  
  ..%KillExtent()
  
  i = 1:1:3 {
    = ..%New()
    p.p1 = "parent["_i_"]"
    j = 1:1:2 {
      = ##class(my.children).%New()
      c.p1 = $$$FormatText("children[%1,%2]",i,j)
      p.children.Insert(c)
    }
    p.%Save()
  }
  zw ^my.parentD
  !,"_______",!!
  
  i = 1,3 ..%OpenId(i).%ConstructClone($$$YES).%Save()

  ; or so - the result is the same
  ; f i = 1,3 d ..%OpenId(i).%ConstructClone($$$NO).%Save()

  zw ^my.parentD
}

Method %OnConstructClone(
  object As %RegisteredObject,
  deep As %Boolean = 0,
  ByRef cloned As %String) As %Status [ Private, ServerOnly = 1 ]
{
  i%p1 = object.p1 _ " cloned"
  $$$OK
}
}


USER>$zv
Cache for Windows (x86-64) 2017.2 (Build 672U) Wed May 10 2017 20:43:42 EDT
USER>##class(my.parent).Fill()
^my.parentD=3
^my.parentD(1)=$lb("","parent[1]")
^my.parentD(1,"children",1)=$lb("","children[1,1]")
^my.parentD(1,"children",2)=$lb("","children[1,2]")
^my.parentD(2)=$lb("","parent[2]")
^my.parentD(2,"children",3)=$lb("","children[2,2]")
^my.parentD(2,"children",4)=$lb("","children[2,1]")
^my.parentD(3)=$lb("","parent[3]")
^my.parentD(3,"children",5)=$lb("","children[3,2]")
^my.parentD(3,"children",6)=$lb("","children[3,1]")
 
_______
 
^my.parentD=5
^my.parentD(1)=$lb("","parent[1]")
^my.parentD(1,"children",1)=$lb("","children[1,1]")
^my.parentD(1,"children",2)=$lb("","children[1,2]")
^my.parentD(2)=$lb("","parent[2]")
^my.parentD(2,"children",3)=$lb("","children[2,2]")
^my.parentD(2,"children",4)=$lb("","children[2,1]")
^my.parentD(3)=$lb("","parent[3]")
^my.parentD(3,"children",5)=$lb("","children[3,2]")
^my.parentD(3,"children",6)=$lb("","children[3,1]")
^my.parentD(4)=$lb("","parent[1] cloned")
^my.parentD(4,"children",7)=$lb("","children[1,2] cloned")
^my.parentD(4,"children",8)=$lb("","children[1,1] cloned")
^my.parentD(5)=$lb("","parent[3] cloned")
^my.parentD(5,"children",9)=$lb("","children[3,2] cloned")
^my.parentD(5,"children",10)=$lb("","children[3,1] cloned")
The next question is, what hashing algorithm is Cache using to create the hash?

CRC32

I will need to replicate that in JavaScript, or come up with some other hash approach.

Localization for Client-side Text

I assume $mvv(58) is set by the system when its installed? But can't find any information on that at the moment.

$mvv(58) - Default Language for a session either user defined or CSP based.

PS: Look at the source code %occMessages.inc - there's a lot of tasty there ;) or read the article in my blog, but it's in russian language :(

The only single problem here – there is no direct support for importing from .JSON files even for recent versions of Caché/Ensemble with builtin JSON support in the kernel.

See %Library.DynamicAbstractObject:%FromJSON(), %ZEN.Auxiliary.jsonProvider:%ConvertJSONToObject(), %ZEN.Auxiliary.jsonProvider:%ParseFile(), %ZEN.Auxiliary.jsonProvider:%ParseJSON()

Given:
test.json: {"a":"test","b":[1,2,3,4]}

    file=##class(%Stream.FileCharacter).%New()
    file.Filename="C:\test.json"
    file.TranslateTable="UTF8"
    ##class(%ZEN.Auxiliary.jsonProvider).%ConvertJSONToObject(file,,.obj)
    obj.%Print()
 

Output:

-----------------
a: "test"
b:
  [1] 1
  [2] 2
  [3] 3
  [4] 4

> Can I make a serial class always computed?
Yes, of course.

Class CS.Serial Extends %SerialObject [ NoExtent ]
{
Property Year As %Integer;
Property Month As %Integer;
}

Class CS.Persistent Extends %Persistent
{

Property data As CS.Serial [ SqlComputeCode = {set {*} = ##class(CS.Persistent).dataGetStatic()}, SqlComputed, Transient ];

ClassMethod dataGetStatic() As %List
{
  quit $lb(2017,1)
}
}

Output:
^CS.PersistentD=1
^CS.PersistentD(1)=$lb("")
ID      data
1       $lb(2017,1)
 
1 Rows(s) Affected

It all depends on what you wish to achieve.
For example:

Class CS.Serial Extends %SerialObject
{
Property Year As %Integer;
Property Month As %Integer;

Method %MyGetSerial() As %List [ ServerOnly = 1 ]
{
  q $lb(i%Year,i%Month)
}
}

Class CS.Persistent Extends %Persistent
{
/// Property is triggered computed
Property data1 As CS.Serial [ SqlComputeCode = {set {*} = ..dataGetStatic()}, SqlComputed ];
/// Property is always computed
Property data2 As %List [ SqlComputeCode = {set {*} = ##class(CS.Persistent).dataGetStatic()}, SqlComputed, Transient ];

/// data getter method in SQL context
ClassMethod dataGetStatic() As %List
{
  s s=##class(CS.Serial).%New(), s.Month=1, s.Year=2017
  q s.%MyGetSerial()
  ; or
  q $lb(2017,1)
}
}

---------

select ID,data1,data2,data1_Month,data1_Year from CS.Persistent

ID  data1   data2   data1_Month  data1_Year
1   2017,1  2017,1  1            2017
2   2017,1  2017,1  1            2017
3   2017,1  2017,1  1            2017