Debugger broken in 1.2. Reverting to 1.1.

[Daniel Gackle]

First of all, I love Firebug, Firebug made my life better, and I've
recommended it to everybody and their dog. But I'm having so many
problems with script debugging in 1.2 that I simply can't use it.
Examples:

* breakpoints don't work
* single-stepping doesn't work
* script tab blank after a few dozen lines
* can't click on a function in console and jump to source code (it
either does nothing or jumps to the start of script only)

My script is long, but not insanely long (3000 lines). I've tried
every combination of betas and alphas and browser versions without
success. All I want back is a usable Firebug, and it turns out to be
pretty hard to find a copy of the old one. Luckily, I ran across this,
which contains a link for downloading 1.1:

http://groups.google.com/group/firebug/msg/6d201627cd41a2d5?hl=en

I've reverted and to my relief it appears things are working again.

I understand the desire to move the project forward and am glad for
the work being done on it. But I've come to depend on Firebug and
simply can't afford to replace a stable (for my purposes) version with
a buggy (for my purposes) one. I'll upgrade again later and see if I
have better luck.

Sincerely,
Daniel

[John J Barton]

Daniel,

Based on the symptoms I suggest that that you create a new Firefox
profile and install Firebug 1.2.1:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

The bug list is http://code.google.com/p/fbug/issues/list
but there are no reports of these kinds of problems. So I doubt they
are Firebug bugs but rather some kind of setting in your environment
that will be cleared with the new profile.

jjb

[John J Barton]

On Oct 1, 3:23 pm, Daniel Gackle <danielgac...@gmail.com> wrote:

> pretty hard to find a copy of the old one. Luckily, I ran across this,
> which contains a link for downloading 1.1:

By the way 1.1 has a security hole so be cautious in where you browse
when you use it.

jjb

[Daniel Gackle]

John,

I did exactly what you suggested and, so far, things look fixed. It
will take a while to see if the problems really are gone (if they're
not, I'll report back).

Thank you!

Daniel

On Oct 1, 5:20 pm, John J Barton <johnjbar...@johnjbarton.com> wrote:
> Daniel,
>
> Based on the symptoms I suggest that that you create a new Firefox
> profile and install Firebug 1.2.1:http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager
>

> The bug list ishttp://code.google.com/p/fbug/issues/list

[Anil]

I've just started using FF3 and Firebug 1.2 Win XP and have been
looking around to find out if it's only me. Apparently not. I'm a bit
worried because Firebug is a critical tool for my productivity and I
am finding script debugging is in trouble.

Specifics:
- Breakpoints sometimes automatically disable on page refresh: this
makes them unusable because page won't break.
- Single step sometimes appears to REPEAT on the same line!! No
debugging going on here.
- Single step sometimes just warps out of debugging mode to who knows
where? Can't debug.
- Breakpoints drop in on a blank screen or go to start of script so
you can't track steps. Sometimes a page refresh enables Firebug to
find it's place in the script the second time round, like it needs to
refresh some initialisation data.

I was wondering if it was my JavaScript or a Firebug problem and was
scanning to find other reports before spending the time on pinning
down a test case. My script is very small but a bit complex - uses
XMLHttpRequest and some OO work to manage node creation and event
handling. Oh, but the page has some large arrays on it too...

I already tried a new profile with absolutely no improvement. I am
considering going back to FF2 until the new Firebug matures on FF3 or
my code improves. Are we really the only two people who have got this?
(Note to Google: Firebug problems in Firefox 3.)

Thanks for all your sterling work. Magnificent plugin. AnilG.

> > but there are no reports of these kinds of problems.

> > jjb

> > > First of all, I love Firebug

> > > problems with script debugging in 1.2 that I simply can't use it.

[John J Barton]

On Oct 4, 11:15 pm, Anil <anilsgul...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've just started using FF3 and Firebug 1.2 Win XP and have been
> looking around to find out if it's only me. Apparently not. I'm a bit
> worried because Firebug is a critical tool for my productivity and I
> am finding script debugging is in trouble.

Where were you looking "around"? The Firebug developers read this
newsgroup and the Firebug issues list:
http://code.google.com/p/fbug/issues/list

>
> Specifics:
> - Breakpoints sometimes automatically disable on page refresh: this
> makes them unusable because page won't break.
> - Single step sometimes appears to REPEAT on the same line!! No
> debugging going on here.
> - Single step sometimes just warps out of debugging mode to who knows
> where? Can't debug.
> - Breakpoints drop in on a blank screen or go to start of script so
> you can't track steps. Sometimes a page refresh enables Firebug to
> find it's place in the script the second time round, like it needs to
> refresh some initialisation data.

None of these problem are know or reported in the bug list. Any chance
you are using "file:" URLs?

>
> I was wondering if it was my JavaScript or a Firebug problem and was
> scanning to find other reports before spending the time on pinning
> down a test case. My script is very small but a bit complex - uses
> XMLHttpRequest and some OO work to manage node creation and event
> handling. Oh, but the page has some large arrays on it too...
>

When you scan other reports note which version of Firebug. The
current version is 1.2.1 and development is on 1.3.

> I already tried a new profile with absolutely no improvement. I am
> considering going back to FF2 until the new Firebug matures on FF3 or
> my code improves. Are we really the only two people who have got this?

No, the original poster's problem was fixed. So you are the only one
as far as I know.

> (Note to Google: Firebug problems in Firefox 3.)

? whazat?

>
> Thanks for all your sterling work. Magnificent plugin. AnilG.

You're welcome. Below you quote some problems that Daniel Gackle
reported. Please don't quote them as if they reinforce the idea that
something is broken. Daniel has already reported that he does not have
these problems any more. So his solved problem is not related to your
problem. If you have problem with javascript debugging in Firebug
and report it with a test case I'll fix it. You don't have to find
anyone else with the same symptoms.

jjb

[Anil]

Thanks for your rapid and comprehensive reply, John. I also appreciate
your direction on how to use the list.

Clearly firebug issues list is the only place I need to look. I was
checking mainly on Google and any forums that google turned up in
order to see if someone had a similar problem and could provide a fix,
e.g. maybe my code is wrong. I also want to know if this is a known
bug then I don't have to report it again.

I will try to establish a minimal test case so I can submit a proper
bug report with clear version numbers. I will re-test on the latest
release, including the 1.3 release before doing so. I guess I should
also make sure my Firefox is up to date as well.

I am mainly making XMLHttpRequest POST submissions to http server at a
different domain, not file URLs. Note to google is an attempt to enter
the succeeding keywords into the page so that the page may get picked
up when googling on those keywords. I did this because I was having
trouble finding any material on my issue. As you point out, that seems
to be because I'm the only one who's having it.

Thanks
Anil

[Daniel Gackle]

< Daniel has already reported that he does not have these problems any
more >

To follow up: after a few days of development things are holding up
pretty well, with two caveats.

1. I often evaluate a function name in the console to get a definition
I can click on to jump to its source code. Sometimes Firebug doesn't
jump to the right place, but rather the top of the script file. This
happens the first time I do this in a Firebug session; I have the
impression it happens at other times too, but I don't remember. (I
last observed this in FF 3.03, Firebug 1.2.1 on OS X.)

2. Something I did this week caused all the nasty problems to return,
which I solved by recreating my FF profile. I wish I knew what I did,
as refreshing the profile is time-consuming (any ideas?). Still, at
least it restores Firebug to good working order.

Daniel

> something is broken.Danielhas already reported that he does not have

[John J Barton]

On Oct 8, 1:22 pm, Daniel Gackle <danielgac...@gmail.com> wrote:
> < Daniel has already reported that he does not have these problems any
> more >
>
> To follow up: after a few days of development things are holding up
> pretty well, with two caveats.
>
> 1. I often evaluate a function name in the console to get a definition
> I can click on to jump to its source code. Sometimes Firebug doesn't
> jump to the right place, but rather the top of the script file. This
> happens the first time I do this in a Firebug session; I have the
> impression it happens at other times too, but I don't remember. (I
> last observed this in FF 3.03, Firebug 1.2.1 on OS X.)

If you can provide a test case I can fix it....

>
> 2. Something I did this week caused all the nasty problems to return,
> which I solved by recreating my FF profile. I wish I knew what I did,
> as refreshing the profile is time-consuming (any ideas?). Still, at
> least it restores Firebug to good working order.

I guess you are setting an option. I think you might save your
prefs.js from sometime when it is working and the next time it fails,
compare the prefs.js to the saved on. This file is in you profile
directory.