function breaks when run too fast?

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  • John Angel
    #1

    function breaks when run too fast?

    Hi,

    I have a pretty wierd situation. I have a javascript function that
    runs when I submit a page. The onsubmit code does quite a bit - it
    goes through a big textarea and replaces tabs with spaces,
    inserts/removes line breaks...it uses regular expressions to convert
    textarea content into somethign that can be sent to a mainframe
    application.

    Here's the problem: Sometimes special characters are pasted into the
    text area from Word. Then, the submit code seems to go wrong - it
    jumbles the content and some of the data is lost. I started adding
    alerts in various places in the code to try and see where it was going
    wrong. But it seems that by placing the alerts in the function, it
    slows it down... and the error goes away!

    It seems as though the code is going too fast and getting confused.
    ....but that doesn't really make sense to me. Has anyone ever
    experienced illogical breaks like this? Any suggestions?

    Thanks in advance!
    Tags: None
    • Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
      #2
      Re: function breaks when run too fast?

      John Angel wrote:[color=blue]
      > I have a pretty wierd situation. I have a javascript function that
      > runs when I submit a page. The onsubmit code does quite a bit [...]
      > Here's the problem: Sometimes special characters are pasted into the
      > text area from Word. Then, the submit code seems to go wrong - it
      > jumbles the content and some of the data is lost. [...][/color]

      URL?


      PointedEars

        Comment

        • John Angel
          #3
          Re: function breaks when run too fast?

          Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@nu rfuerspam.de> wrote in message news:<410E895A. 5020503@Pointed Ears.de>...[color=blue]
          > John Angel wrote:[color=green]
          > > I have a pretty wierd situation. I have a javascript function that
          > > runs when I submit a page. The onsubmit code does quite a bit [...]
          > > Here's the problem: Sometimes special characters are pasted into the
          > > text area from Word. Then, the submit code seems to go wrong - it
          > > jumbles the content and some of the data is lost. [...][/color]
          >
          > URL?
          >
          >
          > PointedEars[/color]

          Unfortunately, this is part of a large, internal web application. I
          guess I'm just wondering whether or not it's possible for javascript
          (In IE6/xp) to get "ahead of itself" as it seems to.

            Comment

            • John Angel
              #4
              Re: function breaks when run too fast?

              Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@nu rfuerspam.de> wrote in message news:<410E895A. 5020503@Pointed Ears.de>...[color=blue]
              > John Angel wrote:[color=green]
              > > I have a pretty wierd situation. I have a javascript function that
              > > runs when I submit a page. The onsubmit code does quite a bit [...]
              > > Here's the problem: Sometimes special characters are pasted into the
              > > text area from Word. Then, the submit code seems to go wrong - it
              > > jumbles the content and some of the data is lost. [...][/color]
              >
              > URL?
              >
              >
              > PointedEars[/color]

              Unfortunately, this is part of a large, internal web application. I
              guess I'm just wondering whether or not it's possible for javascript
              (In IE6/xp) to get "ahead of itself" as it seems to.

                Comment

                • rf
                  #5
                  Re: function breaks when run too fast?

                  John Angel
                  [color=blue]
                  > Unfortunately, this is part of a large, internal web application. I
                  > guess I'm just wondering whether or not it's possible for javascript
                  > (In IE6/xp) to get "ahead of itself" as it seems to.[/color]

                  When I drive my car too fast it rattles. Can you tell me what is wrong?

                  Oh, you want to see the car? Well, no, unfortunately you cant. It's locked
                  in the garage.

                  --
                  Cheers
                  Richard.



                    Comment

                    • Lee
                      #6
                      Re: function breaks when run too fast?

                      John Angel said:
                      [color=blue]
                      >[...]
                      >But it seems that by placing the alerts in the function, it
                      >slows it down... and the error goes away![/color]

                      Yes, that happens. Sometimes it seems to be a bug in the
                      browser that requires a change in state from code execution
                      to event processing before a change takes place. Other cases
                      can be explained by the fact that some method calls return
                      before the task (opening a window, for example) is completely
                      finished.

                      It's likely that at least one person reading this has
                      experienced your problem, but we would need to see an example.

                      We don't need to see the whole project.
                      Create a small test case that demonstrates the problem.
                      I'm particularly interested in seeing how you invoke the code
                      that's causing trouble.

                        Comment

                        • Grant Wagner
                          #7
                          Re: function breaks when run too fast?

                          John Angel wrote:
                          [color=blue]
                          > Hi,
                          >
                          > I have a pretty wierd situation. I have a javascript function that
                          > runs when I submit a page. The onsubmit code does quite a bit - it
                          > goes through a big textarea and replaces tabs with spaces,
                          > inserts/removes line breaks...it uses regular expressions to convert
                          > textarea content into somethign that can be sent to a mainframe
                          > application.
                          >
                          > Here's the problem: Sometimes special characters are pasted into the
                          > text area from Word. Then, the submit code seems to go wrong - it
                          > jumbles the content and some of the data is lost. I started adding
                          > alerts in various places in the code to try and see where it was going
                          > wrong. But it seems that by placing the alerts in the function, it
                          > slows it down... and the error goes away![/color]

                          That is known as a "heisenbug" :
                          <url: http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/h/heisenbug.html />
                          <url: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?HeisenBug />
                          <url: http://www.wordspy.com/words/heisenbug.asp />
                          [color=blue]
                          > It seems as though the code is going too fast and getting confused.
                          > ...but that doesn't really make sense to me. Has anyone ever
                          > experienced illogical breaks like this? Any suggestions?[/color]

                          It seems unlikely that the code is "going too fast". It is, as Lee pointed
                          out, more likely an issue with the way you invoke your code.

                          Also, given the fact that you mention "special characters", I'd ensure
                          your code is either unicode compatible, or can deal with unicode
                          characters properly, either by rejecting them outright, or converting them
                          into something that you can actually submit (by modding the character code
                          with 256 for example).

                          --
                          Grant Wagner <gwagner@agrico reunited.com>
                          comp.lang.javas cript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq


                            Comment

                            • Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
                              #8
                              Re: function breaks when run too fast?

                              John Angel wrote:[color=blue]
                              > Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@nu rfuerspam.de> wrote [...]:[color=green]
                              >> John Angel wrote:[color=darkred]
                              >>> [...] I have a javascript function that runs when I submit a page.
                              >>> The onsubmit code does quite a bit [...] Here's the problem:
                              >>> Sometimes special characters are pasted into the text area from Word.
                              >>> Then, the submit code seems to go wrong - it jumbles the content and
                              >>> some of the data is lost. [...][/color]
                              >>
                              >> URL?
                              >> [...][/color]
                              >
                              > Unfortunately, this is part of a large, internal web application. I guess
                              > I'm just wondering whether or not it's possible for javascript (In
                              > IE6/xp) to get "ahead of itself" as it seems to.[/color]

                              You could post relevant snippets of your code as well.


                              PointedEars

                              P.S.
                              Please read <http://netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.htm l> regarding
                              the attribution _line_ and other recommended quoting practices.

                                Comment

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