Rare crash destroys current filter

I'm getting a very annoying crash once in a while. The crash overwrites the currently active filter file (its zero bytes in size after the crash). This bug adds up to hours of lost work by now, but I can't tell whats causing it.

The first time I encountered it, I found out it had to do with Outlook Express running (in particular an OE plugin called RSS Popper). So I got used to closing down OE while working with FF. Now the bug has reappeared with something else causing it. I suspect that it has to do with the internal XML handling code somehow (perhaps you use MSXML, and when other programs do too, it could cause conflicts somehow).

Anyways, Since I can't give you any specific information, and FF in the crash fails to generate a bug report, I have a few practical suggestions.

1. When FF is not in editing mode, open the filter file in readonly mode. This should prevent a crash from destroying the file.

2. When in editing mode, store a backup file every N seconds or after a change (last one could be a problem if the crash is caused by the last change), and when FF opens next time, inform the user about the existence of the backed up file (like seen in many other applications).

I am not sure if the bug really is related to FF code, could be external causes. Either way the result is mighty annoying. I really hope you will implement some sort of backup mechanism.

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Sphinx. wrote: I am not sure if the bug really is related to FF code

It is.....

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CFandM wrote: Still not fixed yet..

Nope......

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onyXMaster wrote: the leak is almost certainly (I usually know what I'm talking about when it comes to programming) is one of closed-source libraries we licensed from a 3rd party: a) [excuse me for my language] its support plainly sucks (won't dive into details here for obvious reasons) b) nevertheless, it's one of the best solutions of its kind on the market c) it is Windows-specific, so Mac version won't have any trace of it d) we're going to license another library performing the same function or even roll our own for both Windows and Mac (check "c" above) e) but not until 2.0 or at least 1.5, since it will put a great burden not only on the dev team, but on the release engineering and support teams also, since there will be certain compatibility issues with previous versions

Whatever it's source.....I can't wait for FF to put an end to it.....royal pain in the arse to put it mildly.....

P.S. We know about this bug, and we do care about fixing it -- problem is it's not exactly easy to reproduce on machines we have in-house and when it's reproduced it's usually too late since you can't do anything meaningful with the process when it already leaked so much OS handles that the OS GUI has trouble of even redrawing itself or moving mouse pointer

That just happened to me too Sphinx. I had three days of work into it. Was renaming sliders and tweaking. Was going to release in a few days

I would have to say it was my best filter yet. Gone. Same thing that happened to you. Just lost it about an hour ago.

So I do have a back up in a more baby stage, so I guess I'll go back try and remember everything I did.

Expect to see a new filter in a week or so, lol.

Stuff happens, just have to smile and move on.

Yeah, have to immediately save your work and restart the program at the first sign of the tell-tale slowdown and sticky cursor.....or take a chance on your filters getting 0-byted.....not good......

I do frequent saves and backup all my filters to a location outside of the FF file.....better safe than sorry.....

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Kraellin wrote: autosave feature

Don't have it yet.....but I would love to have it ASAP.....

Its sad to see that we have had two upgrades by now, and that bug is still considered mid/low prio (according to Stevie J the bug is going far back). I must admit I don't understand the teams priorities here - if the software cannot save its own projects, or trash existing work I'd say thats top top prio to find a solution for! (FF Team - sorry to put it this way, but I've had enough...)

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Sphinx. wrote: I must admit I don't understand the teams priorities here - if the software cannot save its own projects, or trash existing work I'd say thats top top prio to find a solution for!

----Join the club. There are many other issues with FF that are taking a backseat to the Mac version it seems. I can only hope they pull it all together soon, since FF is a genius device on the rise overall.

jffe

it shldnt, sherry. pc's have been able to multitask for a while now, not always well, but they're supposed to you are still doing the same number of tasks, loading the presets and rendering the display. so, the order one does them in or if they are done more or less concurrently shldnt make a difference the number of resources used.

as for tripping the bug doing it the way you did, i dont know. the resource bug/leak seems to happen mostly when you leave FF idle for a while or when you've been using it for a long period. the resources just sort of 'leak' away, like water draining from a small hole in a pot. when enough resources are gone, there's not enough left to maintain a working program and it crashes.

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StevieJ wrote: I have to agree.....too many people are experiencing problems with it(...)

Yeah, the worst thing is that you can loose hours/days of work because FF ruins the file - I could live with non destructive crashes (or even crashes that only take down latest changes, i.e. when going into editing mode FF works on a temporary file) - but crashes that destroys your work is unacceptable. What I don't understand is why we haven't seen a release with some sort of temporary workaround like some of the solutions I suggested (like automated backup) - then again I don't know anything about the internals, could be that its not possible.