274623 - Venkman is unusable under Mozilla Firefox...

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Other Applications Graveyard :: Venkman JS Debugger, defect)

Description

[Robert Brown III]

I have acquired and installed Version 0.9.84 of Venkman for use with Mozilla
Firefox (as instructed in your only- slightly- useful FAQ) and am attempting to
debug a simple html file that references a Javascript file.

Problem 1: There is no real documentation on how to use this debugger with
Firefox. This is a real problem, since all other instructions seem pretty- well
oriented toward various Netscape and Mozilla Browsers. For example, your
instructions for other browsers refer to a "project" window, which does not
appear to exist in Version 0.9.84.

Problem 2: When attempting to load and debug some Javascript, I utilize an HTML
file which in turn includes (and calls functions from) a seperate Javascript
file. I open this file using Firefox, then start Venkman.

Venkman apparently does not load the referred to js file. It does have, in a
"browser window" a reference to the js file, but when I attempt to load that
file it generates a rather cryptic message:

 Error loading URL <file:///Jscripts/calendarcode.js>: [Exception... "Component
returned failure code0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH)
[nsIChannel.asyncOpen]" nsresult: "0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH)"
location: "JS frame :: chrome://venkman/content/venkman-url-loader.js ::
loadURLAsync :: line 75" data: no].

This could be an error on Venkman's part, or an error that I can correct. Either
way, the message tells me a lot of nothing. Either this system needs to generate
"english language" (or whatever localized language) errors or you people need to
put out documentation explaining these cryptic error messages. The former is
preferred, but in the short term the latter would be acceptable.

Problem 3: There are circumstances where I have simply started Venkman (without
going to a specific page) and seen a number of (I think) venkman- related js
files loaded. Unfortunately, it is unclear what state Venkman is in; the
debugger commands are all disabled (except Stop, which apparently does nothing),
there is no way to load other js files or debugging, and attempts to "open" such
files appear to be ignored by the application. In short, Venkman does nothing,
debugs nothing, and appears to be quite useless.

Based on the problems described above, this "tool" of yours appears to be
completely useless and unusable -- at least with your Firefox browser. Your
documentation is inadequate, the software does not appear to work properly, and
its failure handling is among the worst I've seen in any software. I would be
interested in knowing exactly what plans you have (if any) to eventually fix
these inadequacies.

Comment 1

[Robert Ginda]

1. You are a whiny bastard.  What part of this is supposed to make me want to
help you out?

2. File separate bugs for separate problems.

3. I don't recall writing any documentation that refers to a "project" window. 
Venkman has never had a project window, under any browser.  If you think you've
found a reference to a project window you'll have to give a link, 'cause I've
got no idea what you're talking about.

4. I've never see that NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH exception before.  If I
had spent all my time translating low level mozilla error messages into
something pretty, I never would have gotten any real work done.  My intuition
tells me that you are a Windows user.  If so, file:///Jscripts/calendarcode.js
isn't going to resolve to anything that makes sense on your system.  It should
include a drive letter, maybe something like "file://c|/Jscripts/whatever.js". 
Maybe Venkman got this wrong, or maybe you did.  You're not really motivating me
to care, either way.

5. re: your "Problem 3" rant, it sounds to me like you wouldn't know how to use
Venkman, even if it did work for you.  Have you read
http://www.svendtofte.com/code/learning_venkman/?

6. Venkman doesn't work properly on all versions of Firefox.  If I remember
right, it's even broken on the latest trunk builds.  I'm not sure about 1.0. 
You never did get around to mentioning what version of Firefox you were using.

Comment 2

[Robert Brown III]

1. Whiney, am I? FYI: my intention wasn't to "make" you do anything. It was
primarily to point out a few problems in what is appearing more and more to be
(based on your rather unnecessarily rude behavior) a poorly- designed, low-
quality software system. 

2. You want seperate reports for seperate bugs? You got it, friend!

3. By the way: the reference you requested on the nonexistant Project window is
athttp://www.mozilla.org/projects/venkman/venkman-walkthrough.html. Check it out!
 

Comment 3

[Yann Debois]

Attachment: screenshot

Comment 4

[Yann Debois]

Hi, 

just reporting, don't shoot! Grin!

OS: WinXP
Browser: Mozilla 1.4 build #20030624
Xpi installation of Venkman from http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/extensions/javascript_debugger/javascript_debugger-0.9.87-fx+fl+mz+tb.xpi
seemed to succeed, but at restart Moz prints in red below the status bar : 
'label="&vnkButton.label;" tooliptext="vnkButton.label;"/>
-------------^'
instead of showing a shortcut button I guess. 
I'll upgrade old Moz and see what it says.

  Yann

Comment 5

[James Ross]

Yann, that's a localisation problem. The language information for Venkman in your Mozilla is out of date and/or doesn't include the correct locale strings for the version of Venkman you installed. I expect this will happen if you start with a fully localised old Mozilla and install the latest en-US Venkman. There's nothing we can do, and doesn't appear to be related to the rest of this bug at all.