178775 - Crash with autocomplete when the URL bar is cleared {@ -[NSBigMutableString getCharacters:range:]}

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Camino Graveyard :: Location Bar & Autocomplete, defect)

Description

[RalphNumbers]

When you type something in the URL bar, and it is cleared before you can select
an option from the autocomplete popup, but after that popup is generated;
Chimera will crash if you select one of the options or hit return.

This is more of a problem on slow machines(it happens farily often on my beige
G3, almost daily) and is easiest to duplicate when waking up from sleep when you
have to wait for disks to spin up.

I'll attach a crashlog.

Comment 1

[RalphNumbers]

Attachment: The Crashlog

Comment 2

[Greg K.]

RalphNumbers, what build ID are you reporting this bug against?

Comment 3

[RalphNumbers]

The crashlog is from build 2002110415 iirc.  But I've had this problem in other
nightly builds going back at least a month or more.

Comment 4

[Gene Huh]

Attachment: gshuh crashlog

Comment 5

[Gene Huh]

Happens to me on build 2002110415 (0.6 stable) on a Pismo and also on the stable
0.5 build on a beige powermac.  Quite reproducible but takes a few tries each
time.  Nasty interruption to workflow on slower machines.

Steps to reproduce:

(1) Load one or more web pages; wait for them to finish loading.
(2) Open a new window (cmd-N) and RAPIDLY begin typing the URL you've
loaded in previous sessions, before the new window has opened.

Expected Behaviour:  A drop-down list with completed URLs, appearing below the
text I just typed in the URL window.  Pressing down arrow key allows selection
of correct url.

Buggy Behaviour: Dropdown menu appears as expected, but the text I just typed
disappears from the URL window (only a blinking cursor remains).  Attempting to
select one of the items (a single press of the down arrow) results in a 2-3
second pause (the cursor freezes), the beachball cursor (2-3 seconds) and then
unexpected quit.

Sometimes typed text disappears *while* typing URL (i.e.,
if typing 'foo', "fo" disappears and only "o" appears in the text window). 
Crahs does not happen then, because text window is no longer blank.  

Does something in the "new window" routine pre-emptively clear the URL window? 
If so, it's doing it too late and mistakenly catching keystrokes after cmd-N...

Can't reproduce bug if the window in question is the only one open; this seems
to occur when a new window is generated over other already-loaded pages.  Bug
seems not to occur when already-loaded pages have been minimized to Dock.  

Reported to Netscape as Talkback Incident ID: TB24673W

Comment 6

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

what is your homepage? is it blank? i can't repro this at all.

Comment 7

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

having a very hard time reproing (can't), but the only thing i see in the code
is that maybe we're creating a range with a negative length because the location
is greater than the new length of the string...but that should throw a cocoa
exception according to the docs, so we shouldn't keep going with that bad range.

*shrug*

Comment 8

[RalphNumbers]

Mike: My homepage isn't blank, but it is set never to load on it's own.

Comment 9

[Gene Huh]

Reproduced crash on a third machine, a QuickSilver G4/933, using latest build
(2002112204), as well as on the stable 0.6.0 release.  

Bug 181174 looks very similar to the first part of this bug.  From the posts
there, Mike, I'm assuming you can't get typing to disappear from the URL bar?

I can reproduce at will with below procedure, even without previously-loaded
pages (or wearing your fingers out).  In brief, *paste* the URL right after
pressing cmd-N.  See below.

Preferences: 
Home page is blank, "Use system preferences" NOT checked; History set to 30
days.    

To repro at will:  
(1) Copy (cmd-V) the first few letters of a URL that you know will autocomplete
and provide you with additional URLs in the dropdown menu.  
(2) Launch Navigator (if you haven't done so already).  Blank window appears
with flashing cursor in the URL bar.
(3) Now, do cmd-N then cmd-V in rapid succession (i.e., while pressing cmd, type
'nv' rapidly).  You'll see the pasted letters only for a split second in the
address bar; it will then disappear but the dropdown menu will remain.  
(4) Press the down arrow.  Spinning rainbow appears and Navigator crashes.  

If this doesn't work for you, then I don't know what! :)

Comment 10

[RalphNumbers]

Ok, I just figured out a *much* more reliable way to reproduce this.

Open a window, and type something in the location bar so that choices from your
history pop up, don't select anything.
With the choices still up, hit cmd-N for a new window, and quickly type the
first couple letters of another URL.  
The choices should pop up in the new window, and the location bar should clear.

This method will reproduce the problem every time for me.

Comment 11

[Greg K.]

Confirmed using Chimera/2002111204 to reproduce the steps in comment 10.
TB53738G was generated.

Comment 12

[Mark Mentovai]

Analysis regarding clearing of location bar (which is responsible for some, if not all, of 
this bug) in bug 181174.

Comment 13

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

fixed by fixing 181174.

Comment 14

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

should this be reopening since you backed out the fix for bug 181174?

Comment 15

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

reopening

Comment 16

[kaldari]

*** Bug 182149 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 17

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

fixed. when setting the urlbar's text field, do it in a way that triggers the
autocomplete code rather than bypassing it. bulletproofed the autocomplete code
so we shouldn't ever crash.

Comment 18

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

cannot repro the problems in comment 9 or comment 10.

vrfy'ing as fixed on 10.2.2 with 2002.12.04.04.