[Tfug] firefox 2/3

[Matt Jacob]

Glen Pfeiffer wrote:
> I realize that you meant this specifically with regards to 
> Firefox 2&3. However, to say that FF doesn't really crash and 
> then follow up saying maybe only once a week is *absurd*.
> 
> This has been said many times, but it bears repeating. We have 
> lowered our standards too far. For most software it should be  
> unacceptable to crash once a week.
> 
> A counter argument is that of course window managers, text 
> editors, x servers, etc., need to run for months or longer 
> without crashing. But I argue that the web browser has reached a 
> state where it should be held to a higher standard.

Glen,

While I agree with you, we also need to keep in mind that web browsers 
are "special" in that they're parsing tons of user-generated content. 
And since users are inherently stupid, I think browsers should be 
afforded more forgiveness than other apps. Does my calculator app ever 
crash? Of course not, because there are only a handful of explosive 
conditions to check for, and user input is already fairly limited.

Why, then, does Firefox/Internet Explorer/Opera/Safari/Konqueror crash? 
Lots of reasons, but mostly because people do stupid things, and there 
are just too many conditions to prevent against ahead of time. Who could 
have known that I was going to try to access some obscure part of the 
DOM that hadn't been looked at since 2004? Exactly.

The conclusion is that I'm seeing fewer and fewer crashes with Firefox 
3, and we're still only in beta. I didn't used to be able to leave 
Firefox 2 up for an entire week and expect it to perform well, but 
that's exactly what I'm doing with FF3. YMMV, but I think we're getting 
there.

Matt