Quality smoketest the FF browser

General Topics
1

Well you can feel the dents of the FF browser with some quality smoketests, find the here:
http://www.mozilla.org/quality/smoketests/

polonus

2

Polonus, I know you’re testing for (you’ve pointed that out to us numerous times), and are a fan of Flock, but what’s your point here?

“Smoke testing” is done during the initial development phase of about every program I’ve ever seen, to see if the major components of the program work, prior to detailed testing.

It’s simply part of the quality control process, and of little value to the end user.

Is your post somehow hinting that firefox is a lousy browser?

3

Hi OrangeCrate,

I used that because I alter a lot to the standard components of the Flock or FF browsers I test, and then smoketesting has some sense, while mem leaking has given me more or less the clues as to go in what sort of direction. It was more of a joke actually just to demonstrate that browsers, and we find out about that almost daily does not deserve the trust we give it every day. Flaw after flaw after hole after hole is being found up. If FF was a dish, it was a bit like three varieties of mashed potatoes, but various sorts. There is google code there, and there is IBM code, and there are various coders from various backgrounds that bring their particular flavour in.
I will give you an example now of something I added recently, and needs some testing. This was added as addEvent.js to the components file of FF or Flock (does not matter build on the same grounds); right handling of events is critical to the performance of a modern browser; some inspriration came from here: http://www.dustindiaz.com/rock-solid-addevent/

function addEvent(el, eType, fn, uC) {
if (el.addEventListener) {
el.addEventListener(eType, fn, uC);
return true;
} else if (el.attachEvent) {
return el.attachEvent('on' + eType, fn);
} else {
el['on' + eType] = fn;
}
}
addEvent(
document.getElementByID('idname'),
'click',idnameClicked,false);
function stopProp(e) {
if (e && e.stopPropogation) e.stopPropogation();
else if (window.event && window.event.cancelBubble)
window.event.cancelBubble = true;
}
function stopDef(e) {
if (e &&e.preventDefault) e.preventDefault();
else if (window.event && window.event.returnValue)
window.eventReturnValue = false;
}
function addLoadEvent(func) {
  var oldonload = window.onload;
  if (typeof window.onload != 'function') {
    window.onload = func;
  } else {
    window.onload = function() {
      if (oldonload) {
        oldonload();
      }
      func();
    }
  }
}

addLoadEvent(nameOfSomeFunctionToRunOnPageLoad);
addLoadEvent(function() {
  /* more code to run on page load */ 
});
function addEvent(oTarget, sType, fpDest) {
  var oOldEvent = oTarget[sType];
  if (typeof oOldEvent != "function") {
    oTarget[sType] = fpDest;
  } else {
    oTarget[sType] = function(e) {
      oOldEvent(e);
      fpDest(e);
    }
  }
}
	this.invoke = function(e) {
		e = e ? e : window.event;
		e.properThis = this;
		for(fName in listenerArray) {
			listenerArray[fName](e);
		}
	}
	
	this.invoke.addCallback = function(callback) {
		listenerArray[callback.toString()] = callback;
	}
	
	this.invoke.removeCallback = function(callback) {
		delete listenerArray[callback.toString()];
	}
}

Well this more or less tells the story. You could try it out, and tell what it does. The differences between browser handling this are differences in event registration in NS6 and IE5 are perfect examples. As we can see in Working With Events in Netscape 6, NS6 implements the EventListener interface as described by the W3C spec. To attach an event to an element, you use that element’s addEventListener method to define the type of event to listen for, the handler function to execute when the event is fired, and whether you want to use event capture:

IE5 does not employ the EventLister interface. However, it has a similar set of methods, attachEvent and detachEvent, which take similar arguments. Here is how we would attach the same event to the same object in IE:

imgObj.attachEvent(“onmousedown”, processEvent);

Immediately we notice two things:

  • the event type must include “on” at the beginning of the string, and
  • the useCapture boolean is omitted, as events bubble by default in IE

So IE’s attachEvent in my case is AddEvent, and it works rock solid.
Read the whole bug report, and see different proposed patches for addEvent in Mozilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=241518
And here is the proof that is in the cake, the taste (test) of it:
http://therealcrisp.xs4all.nl/upload/menu.html#

polonus

4

Agreed. If you understand code, you don’t really want to see what’s in many of the programs you use everyday. Most programs are held together with bailing wire, chewing gum, bandaids and duct tape (or commonly referred to as “cut and paste”).

But hey, it all seems to work, and it’s not uncommon in other disciplines either.

Take law making:

“Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.” - Otto von Bismarck

And, in business:

“We tried many things. What worked, we defined as our corporate strategy.” - A recent CEO quote. (I can’t seem to find the source right now, but I think it was in a newsletter from the National Association of Wholesalers.)

Anyway, frankly I don’t really care what it looks like under the hood, as long as it works. I discovered long ago, that there’s no such thing as a square peg in a square hole. Life is a series of trying to get square pegs to fit in round holes, and visa versa (though as it relates to computers, Linux seems to help. :wink: ).

5

Exactly !

I wonder if Polonus uses linux …

6

Hi Hard_ROCKER,

Yep, Polunus used a linux distro once to secure the data of a malware corrupted Windows OS, very particular experimental experience a WinXP running on a linux driven DVD. Only way to enter the BIOS, toggling the up and down arrows and the F1 and F8 to go from the one into the other.
I could burn all the data from the hard disk to restore them later, but the very aggressive malware urged me to completely reinstall. Kind of a TOTAL RECALL Windows session, but it were my data not those of the famous Robocop.
The only serious disadvantage of linux and the open sorce movement is so much good effort is wasted on abandoned projects, and so many times the wheel has been re-invented over and over again. But just like democracy the ideal is exellent, reality never gets there.

polonus

7

Polonus,

That thinking is probably a little outdated. As with anything, you have to put in a lot of ingredients and hard work to make a good soup.

Here’s something for you to read comparing the top ten Linux distributions:

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

Linux for the desktop has matured, it’s is easy to install, it’s safe to use, and it is rock solid.

8

Hi OrangeCrate,

Yea, I know, and I know there are some wonderful rocksolid programs there. Saw some of them in action. But there are always two sides of a coin, ye know. I for one sometimes wanted to have some of the SafeIP features in some other software.
What about an obsolete box turned into a single M0n0Wall Fortress.
I was trained once when they were rolling out NT4 together with some Unix guys, learned a lot.

polonus

9

Well, I’d like to believe, since I have no open ports, that my old box is in fact a fortress.

Now granted, though I still use XP occasionally, and religiously keep everything updated (which is why I still scan and read here every day), my everyday face to the net is Linux.

There is a built in firewall (iptables), but since I’m a single user, and not hosting a mail server, I have no antivirus, or antispyware programs (there are none for Linux that I’m aware of) installed.

Something else interesting for you to read. The author (aysiu) is Ubuntu staff and is highly regarded for his forum help and tutorials:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/security

To each our own I guess. By the way, as always, I really enjoy your posts. Interesting, enlightening, though once in while a little confusing for us hamfisted amateurs, but hey, who cares eh?

:slight_smile:

Edit:

An interesting post by Tech that’s worth a read, in the Linux forum on this site:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=20929.0

Oh, and by the way, I know what SafeIP technology is. I’d be curious to know what you’d be using it for?

http://www.safeip.net/index.php?i0=0&i1=0&lang=eng&detail=0

Hijacking computers? :wink: