Re: trashing Netscape (was Netscape 4.71 Is Rock Solid & Fast!)
> From: Pann McCuaig <pann@ourmanpann.com>
> Resent-Sender: debian-user-request@lists.debian.org
>
> On Sun, Oct 24, 1999 at 16:17, Daniel Barclay wrote:
...
> > Please check this one for me (I don't see how this can be anything other
> > than a Netscape bug, but if it is something else, I'd like to know):
...
> > Does Communicator crash with a bus error??
> Nope, works just fine -- I can click until I'm blue in the face and
> Netscape (Navigator) just keeps on truckin'.
Hmm. Maybe Navigator is stable and just Communicator is unstable?
> I'm not suggesting that Netscape is bug free, but it sounds to me like
> you're on a mission to stress test it to failure.
Definitely not. (Well, except for some experiments last night.)
> Why 2000 bookmarks for heaven's sake?
Bookmarking bunches of things as I encounter them, cleaning them up
later. (Well, theoretically. That's why the 2000 doesn't get
trimmed down to something more reasonable.)
How many Netscape windows is it useful to have open at
> once?
As someone else already mentioned, it is frequently useful to open
links in a new window.
(Sometimes I want to preserve the state of the original page, to be
able to go back later to that page and check out other links, no matter
how far I traverse from that first link. Sometimes I want to note
links of interest but continue reading the original page; I pop open
windows and lower them, and eventually get back to them.)
> Other things I'd look at: What window manager are you using? Does
FVWM.
> Netscape give you fits under several different window managers? What
I haven't tried that.
> other tasks are running?
Not much.
> What does top tell you about your resources?
Typically, plenty of free memory. (I have 128MB with 128MB swap.)
> Etc., etc.
In experiments last night, I noticed something about Communicator's
behavior. I was opening many, many windows (a hundred?) to probe
memory-problem theories.
I didn't get any solid results on memory size, but I did notice
that after a while, the netscape process would chew up about 90%
CPU time when it shouldn't have been doing anything. It would
still function (redrawing exposed windows, responding to menu
commands, and usually responding to link clicks), but slowly.
On different runs, it happened at different resident set sizes
(so some crazy theory I had about some (non-Java) garbage collection
or other memory management going on at 32MB was, well, crazy.)
That was when I hadn't run any Java applets. With Java started,
whenever it triggered into 90%-CPU mode, it stopped responding
completely. (No exposure redrawing, no menus, no Alt-Q.)
Oh yeah, another thing: In non-Java 90% CPU mode, I could quit,
but the netscape process would keep running, using 90% CPU.
I didn't seem to be only temporary (e.g., to update the history
or bookmarks files or something).
In one run, middle-clicking on links no longer worked, but
right-clicking and using the "open in new window" menu item
still worked.
Oh yeah, a different another thing: Those test were with no
bookmarks, history, mail, or anything, so I think that rules out
file-size or file-contents problems.
That was also booted from an alternate root partition with a
fairly minimal slink installation I installed (several months
ago) to test Communicator without much extra software loaded.
That's not a pure test (my regular /usr/local partition was
mounted), but it seems unlikely that something odd on my
system is causing the problem.
Daniel
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