Bug in my Javascript or bug in Firefox

[Howard Kaikow]

Yesterday, I decided to try Firefox. I've encountered a behavior that is
either a bug in Firefox or a bug in my Javascript code. I'll try to explain
the problem, hoping that this newsgroup can (in)validate my Javascript code.

First, I'll describe the purpose of the Javascript code.

I often have a need to post a URL to something at my own web site, e.g.,
http://www.standards.com/Sorting/SortPerformanceComparison-Description.html.
It is not easy to remember, or type without error, each URL, so I decided to
write my first Javascript to be able to use
http://www.standards.com/index.html?Sorting instead, which ends up going to
http://www.standards.com/Sorting/SortPerformanceComparison-Description.html.

I then decided, perhaps for no good reason, to also allow
http://www.standards.com/index.html#Sorting to mean the same as
http://www.standards.com/index.html?Sorting. Of course, this works only if
Javascript is enabled. To provide for those not having Javascript enabled,
e.g., http://www.standards.com/index.html#Sorting will go to an anchor that
links to a list of non-Javascript links.

All seemed to work well using IE, but about 35 hours ago, I impulsively
installed Firefox 1.0.

Firefox seems to have a problem if the Javascript resolves, e.g.,
http://www.standards.com/index.html#XXX to actually be
http://www.standards.com/index.html#XXX, whilst IE has no problems. For
example, use IE and Firefox with the links in
http://www.standards.com/test-links-global.html.

Is this a Firefox bug?
Or am I doing something wrong in the Javascript in
http://www.standards.com/links-index.js.
If the latter, how can the Javascript be corrected with a client side
solution?

 

[Mick White]

Howard Kaikow wrote:
[snip]

http://www.standards.com/index.html#Sorting
http://www.standards.com/index.html?

Perhaps?
http://www.standards.com/index.html#Sorting?Sorting
Rename your anchor "Sorting?Sorting"
Be sure to parse out "#Sorting" for your js browsers,
Mick

 

[Lee]

Howard Kaikow said:

Yesterday, I decided to try Firefox. I've encountered a behavior that is
either a bug in Firefox or a bug in my Javascript code.

If you give Firefox an URL that doesn't exist, it will complain
and refuse the load it. That doesn't seem unreasonable, to me.

IE, apparently, will silently load the wrong address (the top of
the page, ignoring the anchor specification).

I don't see that as either a bug in Firefox or in your code.

The problem sems to be that your design relies upon a quirk of IE
that is not shared by Firefox.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

If you give Firefox an URL that doesn't exist, it will complain
and refuse the load it. That doesn't seem unreasonable, to me.

Yes, but the URL that is causing problems does exist, i.e., the anchor is in
the index.html file.

IE, apparently, will silently load the wrong address (the top of
the page, ignoring the anchor specification).

I don't see that as either a bug in Firefox or in your code.

The problem sems to be that your design relies upon a quirk of IE
that is not shared by Firefox.

If I cannot rely on Bill Gates, who can I rely on?

 

[RobG]

Howard Kaikow wrote:
[...]

If I cannot rely on Bill Gates, who can I rely on?

If I click on your link:

<URL:http://www.standards.com/index.html#XXX>

in Firefox 1.0, I am given an error prompt that the URL doesn't exist,
then I'm taken to:

<URL:http://www.standards.com/index-js.html>

IE does exactly the same thing. If that is your expected behaviour,
then there is no issue regarding a difference in how IE or Firefox
treat URLs with invalid anchors.

 

[Dr John Stockton]

JRS: In article <[email protected]>, dated Sun, 28 Nov 2004
13:01:02, seen in Lee

Howard Kaikow said:

Description was not reliably understood.

If you give Firefox an URL that doesn't exist, it will complain
and refuse the load it. That doesn't seem unreasonable, to me.

IE, apparently, will silently load the wrong address (the top of
the page, ignoring the anchor specification).

A browser can only determine that an anchor does not exist by fetching
and examining the whole page. After fetching the whole page, ISTM
reasonable to show it; after all, there's a good chance of it's being
wanted. One would like to see a warning that the anchor was specified
but not found, though.

I don't see that as either a bug in Firefox or in your code.

The problem sems to be that your design relies upon a quirk of IE
that is not shared by Firefox.

ISTM bad Firefox design.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

The anchor does exist.

--
http://www.standards.com/; See Howard Kaikow's web site.

JRS: In article <[email protected]>, dated Sun, 28 Nov 2004
13:01:02, seen in Lee


Description was not reliably understood.



A browser can only determine that an anchor does not exist by fetching
and examining the whole page. After fetching the whole page, ISTM
reasonable to show it; after all, there's a good chance of it's being
wanted. One would like to see a warning that the anchor was specified
but not found, though.


ISTM bad Firefox design.

My DOS <URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/batfiles.htm> - also

batprogs.htm.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

I have managed to rewrite the script to avoid the problem with Firefox.

This does not explain why Firefox behaved differently than IE and Safari.

 

[Dr John Stockton]

JRS: In article <[email protected]>, dated Mon, 29 Nov 2004
14:43:21, seen in Howard Kaikow

Lines: 47

The anchor does exist.

Do learn FAQ section 2.3, including the first part of para 6.

I was responding to Lee's post, not to anything that you wrote.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Interested, or not, parties may follow the soap opera at
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=272126.

I've encountered two differences between IE and Firefox related to this
thread and have posted a PDF at
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=272126 describing how to
reproduce the behavior.