very strange problem

[demetrius]

I have encounter what I think is the strangest bug I have ever seen and was
wondering if anyone else has ever experienced anything similar or might know
the cause of this problem.



I have been finishing a web-based application that was started by someone
else. The original html is so poorly written that there are body and head
tags inside of tables. Despite this the pages display correctly as long as
the browser is IE. For the time being the client does not want to spend the
money to clean up the html.



I have written some JavaScript that executes correctly in my browser,
however does not execute in the clients browser. In addition some other
JavaScript that was originally working in my client's browser ceased to
work. What is strange is that we are both using IE 6. What is even
stranger is that when I viewed the source code on my client's machine the
JavaScript in question did not exist even thought most of the source code
for the page did. On my machine and in my browser the source code looked
and functioned the way that it was written.



Has anyone ever seen anything like this before?

[Steve van Dongen]

Re: very strange problem

"demetrius" <demetrius@wi.r r.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>I have encounter what I think is the strangest bug I have ever seen and was
>wondering if anyone else has ever experienced anything similar or might know
>the cause of this problem.
>
>
>
>I have been finishing a web-based application that was started by someone
>else. The original html is so poorly written that there are body and head
>tags inside of tables.[/color]
Perhaps you misread it and they are tbody and thead tags.
[color=blue]
>Despite this the pages display correctly as long as
>the browser is IE. For the time being the client does not want to spend the
>money to clean up the html.[/color]
It's hard to make a convincing argument for fixing something that
already works when there are things that don't.
[color=blue]
>I have written some JavaScript that executes correctly in my browser,
>however does not execute in the clients browser. In addition some other
>JavaScript that was originally working in my client's browser ceased to
>work. What is strange is that we are both using IE 6. What is even
>stranger is that when I viewed the source code on my client's machine the
>JavaScript in question did not exist even thought most of the source code
>for the page did. On my machine and in my browser the source code looked
>and functioned the way that it was written.[/color]

There are many versions of IE6.

Ensure scripting is enabled in Tools | Internet Options | Security,
pick the appropriate zone, click on Custom Level, enable 'Active
Scripting'

Regards,
Steve

[Andrew Thompson]

Re: very strange problem

On Wed, 26 May 2004 03:38:32 GMT, demetrius wrote:
[color=blue]
> What is strange is that we are both using IE 6. What is even
> stranger is that when I viewed the source code on my client's machine the
> JavaScript in question did not exist even thought most of the source code
> for the page did.[/color]

Does the client have an ad-stopper or
pop-up killer installed? It may have
taken your JS out..

(In the HTML you describe, I would not blame
software for getting confused as to the
intent of the code it is receiving..)

Warn your client he/she is losing money
*right* *now* by turning away non-IE
visitors. Fix the HTML.

--
Andrew Thompson
http://www.PhySci.org/ Open-source software suite
http://www.PhySci.org/codes/ Web & IT Help
http://www.1point1C.org/ Science & Technology