Does this web site crash your PM?

[markfilipak]

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shaggy-dog

About 1 minute on that page and my Pale Moon spontaneously closes -- no notice, no error. Then PM bitches when relaunched.

----- PM version 27.6.2 (64-bit) running in Linux Mint 18. -----

I tried it several times, and even tried rebooting Linux between times. (Now that I closed it and restarted PM, I can be here, writing this.)

I wonder what it is on that page that's causing PM to spontaneously close. If you confirm, please respond ...the symptom may be due to something transient on the page, so a prompt test would probably be best.

Thanks!

[snertev]

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shaggy-dog

About 1 minute on that page and my Pale Moon spontaneously closes -- no notice, no error. Then PM bitches when relaunched.

----- PM version 27.6.2 (64-bit) running in Linux Mint 18. -----

I tried it several times, and even tried rebooting Linux between times. (Now that I closed it and restarted PM, I can be here, writing this.)

I wonder what it is on that page that's causing PM to spontaneously close. If you confirm, please respond ...the symptom may be due to something transient on the page, so a prompt test would probably be best.

Thanks!

Here, it doesn't crash on Win 10 (1709) with PM 27.6.2.

After nearly 90 seconds, an overlay popup appears in order to call the user to action (subscription to newsletter)

[markfilipak]

-snip-
Here, it doesn't crash on Win 10 (1709) with PM 27.6.2.

After nearly 90 seconds, an overlay popup appears in order to call the user to action (subscription to newsletter)

Thanks for responding ... slumming it at the Linux forum, eh? ...

I'm using PM's built-in popup blocker. I wonder if...

2 minutes later...

Nope! I turned off the popup blocker and went to the site and about 1 minute later, bye-bye Pale Moon. So that's not the solution. Oh, well.

[Night Wing]

@ markfilipak

I clicked on your link for the Merriam-Webster site and linux Pale Moon does not close for me. I let it sit there for about 2 minutes of time. Then I repeated again. Still no closing of linux Pale Moon.

I'm using 64 bit linux Pale Moon 27.6.2 running in the "new" 64 bit Linux Mint 18.3 (Sylvia) Xfce. Linux Pale Moon is using Firefox Compat mode and I've got Adblock Latitude enabled (turned on).

[trava90]

No crash here either on my Linux box.

[markfilipak]

No crash here either on my Linux box.

I relaunched in safe-mode. There is a hang/unresponsive script. I left this on the Merriam-Webster web site:

Your javascript hungs in a try-catch loop. The culprit appears to be 'https://js-sec.indexww.com/ht/htw-merriam-webster.js' line #3, char #30985. I went to 'https://www.art19.com/'. It displays a blank page.

Stop doing what you're doing!!

You're making the future of Werriam-Webster dependent on how well javascript runs in a chaotic environment: dozens of platforms of varying quality with more browser-setup variables that you can imagine. I suggest you serve static, purly-HTML pages with static adverts that are prepared on a single server via a single server script. Be more like an old fashioned, static newspaper or magazine. Your life will be easier and your client audience will not feel like they're being spied upon.

I have a custom HOSTS file. That's probably the trigger that causes the javascript hang.

Apparently, Pale Moon isn't handling the unresponsive script properly.

[Moonchild]

It's most likely not an unresponsive script. If it gets stuck in an endless try/catch loop it's likely exhausting the stack which will make Pale Moon close due to OOM. That kind of situation simply cannot be easily detected or caught. This can indeed happen if you use a custom hosts file and the website scripting does not get data it expects due to redirected host connections; although this is still an issue with the scripting in question, of course, an argument can be made that website owners can't possibly test every potential non-standard client-side setup.

Of note, the js in question is 161kB of js that seems to be there for one purpose only: some kind of advertising rotation/bidding framework involving Google, Sovrn and Criteo chief among the participants. probably not the smartest decision to off-load that to browsers. If your hosts file is specifically there to block advertising, then it's likely breaking this framework.

Off-topic:
I do agree that all this rampant JS on every website is getting out of hand though, and it makes websites a lot more fragile than they have to be (there's no real reason why a dictionary page would need much JS at all). Especially reference sites should avoid that kind of thing.

[markfilipak]

It's most likely not an unresponsive script. If it gets stuck in an endless try/catch loop it's likely exhausting the stack which will make Pale Moon close due to OOM. ...

I think they may be related. In safe-mode, I get the unresponsive script dialog that fingers the try-catch. In regular-mode, PM spontaneously closes -- so, technically, I can't be sure. But either could provoke the OOM. Wouldn't the Linux kernel provide a handler for the OOM exception for you to hook?

... That kind of situation simply cannot be easily detected or caught.

Well, it wouldn't be the browser's responsibility to 'catch' that, would it? ...

Ciao, and Thanks. ...Over and out.

[fatboy]

No problems here. Running Pale Moon on Arch