Netscape bookmark-rearranging crashing IDENTIFIED, possibly
I think I have determined that the bookmark-rearranging crashes are a
hard (non-intermittent) bug in Netscape's code:
It can't seem to handle updating the Bookmarks Properties window if you click
on any Bookmarks window line after dragging a separator.
A GGG H H !
A A G G H H !
A A G HHHHH !
AAAAA G GG H H !
A A G G H H
A A GGG H H !
How many THOUSANDS of times has Netscape crashed on me because of this?
How many HOURS of work (trying to rearrange bookmarks) has this destroyed?
How much frustration has this caused?
(Well no, it doesn't explain the Java-related crashes, the plain hanging
(where it doesn't service expose events), the taking over the keyboard and
mouse, the corruption of the bookmarks file if a bookmark contains just
the wrong combination of characters (I sure wish I knew whose web-page
title caused it), and all the other crap, but could it be, maybe, just
MAYBE, that I have found the bug that has caused me SO MUCH aggravation
the last couple of years?
I bet I'm the only one who has encountered the problem because I'm
such a pack rat with my bookmarks. I bookmark all sorts of things
when I'm looking around, and then later I go back and sort out the
mess. I edit the bookmark names, create a lot of folders and separators,
and drag a lot of things around.
The key is the editing step. When I open the Bookmarks Properties
window, I leave it open to make it easier to edit the next bookmark.
I bet Netscape's testers (no, I don't _know_ that they have any, but
I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt) and the rest of you don't edit
bookmarks that way.
So, to verify that this is a specific Netscape problem (vs. a local
problem caused by my local configuration or by the exact state of
my bookmarks file or something), could some of you try the following
on your various versions of Netscape (Communicator) and see if you get
any crashes?
** Be sure to exit and start fresh so that if it crashes you won't lose
any recently changed information (like bookmark edits). ***
- start Netscape Communicator
- open up the bookmarks window
- select (click on) a regular bookmark and open the Bookmark Properties
window
- leaving the Bookmark Properties window open, drag a separator to move
it up or down
- click on any (other?) Bookmarks window line (whether bookmark, folder,
or separator)
- this is where it crashes for me
Recently, I've gotten crashes on:
- Debianized version 4.07
- plain version 4.08, with LD_PRELOAD=/lib/libgnumalloc.so
- plain version 4.61, with LD_PRELOAD=/lib/libgnumalloc.so
- Debianized version 4.5 (I think)
I'm on what I think is a pretty vanilla slink system (upgraded from
hamm).
Also, could those of you with access to Netscape on non-Linux Unix
systems try it too, to confirm that the problem is in Netscape
(vs. peculiar to Linux)?
Thanks.
So, how do I report this bug to Netscape? Ever since they put up
that stupid Netscape Netcenter, it's been virtually impossible to
find product information (such as a bug-reporting address).
Daniel, exhausted
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