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Bug #34585 php.net causes Firefox to freeze
Submitted: 2005-09-21 19:46 UTC Modified: 2005-09-23 10:58 UTC
From: php at transpect dot com Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: Website problem
PHP Version: Irrelevant OS: Gentoo Linux
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
 [2005-09-21 19:46 UTC] php at transpect dot com
Description:
------------
Using Mozilla Firefox 1.0.5, the page begins to display, but gets to "Connecting to static.php.net" and then freezes. At that point going to another screen, then back to Firefox produces an empty terminal window for Firefox with no contents. This is reproducible; happens every time. I'm connecting with Opera now with no problem.

Firefox is using the addblock and noscript plugins ... hmm, wait now I can connect okay with Firefox, as I go to check the noscript setting for it -- which is currently off. So: four times in a row it freezes and I have to kill firefox manually. Now finally it works. Opera worked the first time in the midst of the Firefox crashes. Firefox has always worked with php.net before. And now on a sixth test it freezes up again. Seventh test: Turning on JavaScript as the site loads seems to clear the problem; turning it back off, the browser freezes again, same way. Eighth: Yup, that reproduces. With JavaScript blocked the site freezes the browser. In particular the main page cannot be scrolled -- or anything else, really.

Suggestion: No site should ever depend on JavaScript running in the browser, especially not a site supporting a programming language which will often enough be used in contexts with JavaScript disabled for security reasons.


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 [2005-09-21 21:12 UTC] goba@php.net
Our site obviously works with Firefox with or without JavaScript, we have no dependency whatsoever on JavaScript. i have just tried my 1.0.6 (Ubuntu) with and without JavaScript (I use the Web developer toolbar and a dozen other extensions), but I have encountered no problem. Until someone can produce this, we cannot do anything for you.
 [2005-09-21 21:38 UTC] php at transpect dot com
goba,

Thanks for checking. The real test might be to try installing the noscript extension in your Firefox, with it defaulting to blocking all sites, and see if Firefox then freezes up on php.net. It's via noscript that I have JavaScript (partially) turned off. Haven't had it freeze up on other sites....

I'll build a more recent Firefox soon and test that against the site, to see if the difference is there.
 [2005-09-22 11:25 UTC] sniper@php.net
It's obviously some bug in the browser, not in the website..

 [2005-09-22 17:21 UTC] php at transpect dot com
With respect, it is generally accepted that it is the responsibility of Website authors to maintain compatibility with at least the major browsers. Mozilla Firefox is a major browser (particularly popular among those coding PHP) and the noscript extension is also reasonably common of late (one of the most-used, certainly). The bug, properly analyzed, is probably in the interaction of the site and noscript -- but no other sites of the many I visit are having this problem. So it's something you could avoid by recoding the php.net site.

If you don't want to adopt a professional attitude about your site code, that's of course your business. But then, since PHP has become more of a Zend corporate thing, and less of a Rasmus amateur thing, professionalism about Web coding compatibility might be in order.

If it were one of my sites, I'd fix it. Sorry for the attitude, but as a longtime PHP coder I'd like to see you guys continue to strive for the highest standards.
 [2005-09-22 18:21 UTC] goba@php.net
Once again, please understand: our site works with Firefox. Whatever buggy desktop stuff you have we cannot help with. Just so that we are using similar software, I also installed the noscript extension (on top of the extensions I already have), and just as I anticipated, I encoutered no problems. If this is hard to beleive, look here for a screen grab:

  http://xs.to/xs.php?f=Screenshot.png&h=xs47&d=05384

Notice that the page is fully loaded and that noscript is in effect.
 [2005-09-22 22:33 UTC] php at transpect dot com
Curious. The page fully loads for me too -- it's then that it freezes. Could you scroll?

As for "buggy desktop stuff," I'm running a standard KDE installation. There's nothing particularly weird or customized about this workstation. Nor am I asking you to "help" me with it. If nobody else sees this problem -- odd. My bet would be that others just aren't as considerate in reporting bugs to you. 

There's been a notable lowering of standards across much of the open source movement in the last couple of years. I've been with it since '93, and this isn't the only place I'm now seeing much less respect for careful bug reports.
 [2005-09-22 23:44 UTC] nlopess@php.net
I also have Konqueror, Firefox and Opera and all work fine.
This is not a PHP problem! So please report the bug to Mozilla.
 [2005-09-23 00:02 UTC] goba@php.net
I don't see how lowering of standards come into the picture. Quite a few people checked their browsers, and Jacques even reported to the mirror list that it also works in 1.5. Now what else can we do? How can we raise our standards here? What respect do you miss? The only possiblity is to go and check your computer, which you really should not expect us to do.

Ps. of course I can scroll after the page loaded, there is no freeze. Anything can cause this behaviour in your whatever hardware/Gentoo/KDE/Firefox setup, and anything can be buggy of course as with any other software.
 [2005-09-23 03:49 UTC] php at transpect dot com
Goba, you're setting up a straw man argument. I never asked you to check my computer. There's nothing to check it _for_. Perhaps we're looking at a timing issue, and the folks who've checked (and you're saying it's many folks surprises me since that wasn't reflected here) were closer to the servers? In any case my computer is behaving fine, except for the consistent freezing of Firefox on your site when noscript is blocking your JavaScript. My typical day includes visits to diverse sites. It's not freezing anywhere else. The chance that there's something to find on my computer that would explain it is vanishingly small. What would your logic tree be on that? What software here, beyond the browser and its plugins, would by what mechanism cause the browser -- not the desktop just the browser -- to consistently freeze just on your site and just when JavaScript is blocked by noscript?

Nlopess, I never said it was a PHP problem, I said it was a php.net site scripting problem. Again, my best guess is it's a timing issue in your JavaScript, and the determining variable is where I am in the net topology compared to yourselves and your server. If you've read my report, I have no problem with Opera either; it's specific to Firefox with the noscript plugin. I've been doing Websites for 12 years. JavaScript is often problematic in terms of universality. I'd help you debug yours, but I generally stay away from it.

Blaming the messenger -- or vaguely waving your hand at the messenger's system -- shows lowered standards. I have yet to see a situation where a browser problem derives from the desktop it's running on -- short of failing hardware that manifests in multiple and inconsistent errors rather than the consisted bug I've encountered with the current version of your site. The presumption that I have "buggy desktop stuff" just shows that you don't know much about how  systems work, IMHO.

Yeah, I'll let this drop now. But I do hope you'll think about standards. A great many bugs aren't within one system, but in the interactions between systems (at each fractal level). If you're only willing to recognize the internal ones, you shouldn't be doing Web development.
 [2005-09-23 10:58 UTC] goba@php.net
OK, just to summarize in simple terms:

  - You say, our site works if you browse without noscript
    (That is our little JavaScript has no problem then)

  - You say you have 12 years experience in web development,
    which means you create websites since the W3C was formed

  - Now excuse me that I assume that noscript strips off
    the JavaScript, and you should know that what is left
    in only *markup*, no program code. We only have
    one script tag on our homepage and noscript reports
    that it is stripped off (see my screen shot again).

  - You say your browser freezes on interpreting our 
    *markup*, and that this might be some "timing issue".
    Since there is no program code running on your computer
    which is from us, I don't understand why would you
    blame php.net.

Until someone can reproduce your problem, or trace it back to something on php.net, we cannot do anything to this issue, as it works fine for us, even in a very similar environment to yours. You might find upgrading your Firefox and/or Noscript plugin helpful, I have 1.0.6 and 1.1.3 respectively.
 
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