New Guy with a very basic problem

[Bill Todd]

Hi all:

I just joined today (5/1/18) and immediately ran into a problem.

No matter what I attempt to run I get an error as follows:

ReferenceError: glowscript_compile is not defined

null

I have tried a few of the sample programs and they all fail for the same reason.

Even the simple box() program gets the same result.

I don't see any reference to a compiler in any of the sample programs so I don't what might be causing this.

On my PC I have windows XP, and am using either Firefox or Opera browsers and get the same problem with both.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

---BT

[Bruce Sherwood]

The first thing to try is http://webglreport.com and report what you see. You may have to update your graphics driver and/or your browser, because it sounds like your graphics card or browser doesn't support WebGL, the 3D graphics library that is built into current browsers.

Bruce

[Bill Todd]

Thanks Bruce!

I'll follow up on your suggestion. I suspect that you are right about the graphics support on my PC. We have a total of 4 machines here (2x Windows XP and 2x Windows 7). All have the same Firefox browser. I'm finding the same problem on both of the XP machines but do not encounter the problem on the Windows 7 PCs. 

Where does the referenced compiler reside?

Are you aware of any users, like myself, still hanging onto older XP machines?

Thanks again,

Bill Todd

[Bruce Sherwood]

The message about a compiler is irrelevant; the real problem is probably lack of WebGL support, which is an absolute necessity because it is the browser component that displays 3D objects.

I don't know that XP is a problem. Rather it's possible that an XP machine is sufficiently old that it doesn't have a graphics card capable of supporting WebGL, or that its graphics driver needs to be updated. That's why it's important to visit webglreport.com to see whether the XP machines do or don't support WebGL.

I have no way of knowing what operating system people are using.

Bruce

[dbor...@willamette.edu]

Bill,

You might also just have to turn on WebGL in your browser options. I know for some weird reason some of the old Macs that we have in our intro lab automatically turned it off. Details on how to turn it on here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqdMzHSSIZ0

Note that if your computer is REALLY old, you could also have a blacklisted graphics card, which Firefox will prevent from trying to use WebGL. You can disable this by following (at your own risk) the instructions here: https://www.sitepoint.com/firefox-enable-webgl-blacklisted-graphics-card/

Best,

Daniel Borrero