Xulrunner runs but does nothing - xul

I am at my wits end. I've written a xul app and it runs fine if I open the .xul in firefox directly. But xulrunner doesn't cooperate at all. I can run my xul fine by using the -chrome flag for firefox and giving it an absolute path, but -app doesn't work on firefox either. I have all the files required (application.ini, chrome.manifest both in root and /chrome/ and tried with either missing as well) and their format has been checked and re-checked.
I was prepared to paste all my files here and link the code, but I've tried everything, including a boilerplate project from http://www.mozdev.org/projects/wizard/ (from the application wizard) which reacts the same way as my own project.
xulrunner returns no error message, nothing - it just stays there in the task manager, no cpu load, not loading anything to memory, inert.
I've tried other projects (https://github.com/matthewkastor/XULRunner-Examples - the periodic table works at least) but I can't get a single solid lead on why some projects run properly, while others just have xulrunner waiting and doing nothing. It also seems this is a rare problem because most people can at least run the boilerplate fine, even if their own projects don't initially run.
I don't think it's necessary to post my code at the moment since it behaves the same way as the boilerplate. Can anyone tell me possible reasons why xulrunner won't work with the boilerplate but will with the example project?
I'm running v25 on win xp sp2 and I have been searching and reading all day, so I'm pretty sure I've read everything related - thanks in advance; I hope 5 days of work won't be wasted :(
edit:
SOLUTION: I messed up and didn't notice that prefs.js was missing or empty. Even if you have no preferences in your app, prefs.js is needed to set up the environment and tell firefox or xulrunner where the xul file to start from is. Without this pointer it has no idea. Yes, the MDN article does state this and what it contains is accurate, this was a big mistake on my part, as it seems I subconsciously (or not?) ignored the prefs.js file because I had no need for preferences in my app.
tl;dr if your apps don't work but the example files do, check your prefs.js even if you don't use preferences.

Posting this to close this question, since it doesn't need further answering.
The fault was with me - the app required a valid prefs.js file which I hadn't created because I was under the impression it wasn't required unless you intended to have preferences in your app. The MDN (at least at the time) specified this.

Related

When I use VS Code write Vue.js, the code color sometimes get chaos

as shown below:
I don't understand why, the syntax and format is correct, it's extremely confusing.
I review my code carefully but can't figure out
this seems to be a bug with VS Code. This could be because VS Code is not updated, or an extension that is not supported anymore.
first, try ctrl + shift + p and running >Developer: Reload Window this should reload your current environment and the error should be fixed.
If that doesn't work, try a different extension. I currently use Vetur, and Prettier.
And don't forget to make sure your VS Code is up to date. go to the bottom left and click the settings cog, then check for update or updates.
My answer is, "Start from scratch, and record your steps." I'm happy to share my notes on what is presently working: https://github.com/TheAutomaTom/VsCodeSettings-Vue3
My personal machine had been in that spot for some weeks, so I took a step back and dump out your cornucopia of extensions and their dependencies.
Only run pertinent language services. This is a tall order given how much a Vue + Typescript + Tailwind on Vite app covers. I am suspicious of generalized HTML/CSS/JS packs though, because they may not be built to parse Vue SFCs. Every new release of a services intended for other frameworks, like Angular or React, are still possible culprits (and moving targets).
I gave up getting Prettier and ESLint on stable ground. For a non-workplace thing, I feel okay about that. You may be having issues with a global package, if you've been experimenting. I've tossed out a couple branches following different tutorials. I intend to revisit this one since it has some example projects: rvest.vs-code-prettier-eslint
I've noticed the Volar team seems to let oddities squeak out a little more frequently than I remember in Vetur.... but we love them just the way they are. Sometimes I downgrade just to check if I've gone crazy, yet.

visual studio 2013 local variables not showing in debugger

I have a solution written in VB with some C# components. The solution uses some libraries from 2 outside sources. I have been working on this project for several months without issue. I cannot identify anything specific that I did to change my system or configuration. I was just working through the code, transitioning from an old set of library calls to the new library calls. The new library calls require complete rewrite so I change sections of the code and test to that point. Visual Studio 2013 debugger as of Friday morning will no longer recognize or show my local variables in this solution. The only things that appear in the Locals window are under Me. The code does work and I have it writing out to a text log file to confirm the values of variables at certain points, but the debugger has gone blind. When I add any of these local variables to Watch the response is " is not declared. It may be inaccessible due to its protection level."
Steps I've taken so far with no permanent success:
looked online and tried the few matches I found with no success
deleted the bin and obj folders and had the solution rebuild with no
success
recreated solution from scratch, copied over base files and rebuilt
solution and project (which worked for a few hours), until I did a
rebuild project and problem appeared again
updated to pack 5 and no success
I have opened my older projects and checked them. The debugger runs just fine and shows the variables. It is obviously something that happens during the rebuild process.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Update:
Let me try to explain a little more clearly the situation.
I have an application I have built and am selling to some customers. Version 1 is installed and running at several locations. It is written in VB and uses some older COM libraries for a particular integration process.
The vendor is retiring the COM libraries. Their new libraries are in C#.
I created a new copy of my entire application (solution) and imported the new C# libraries. I have been going through and replacing the old code with the code for the new calls.I recompiled the solution and everything ran fine in debug.
The objects used with the new calls are completely different and there is limited documentation so I update a section of code and test to that point. Each time I "Save all Files", rebuild the project and test the changes. Everything worked fine for a few days. On Friday morning I started working on more changes and got an odd error. The system was not getting a proper value for a certain variable. When I went to check it in the WATCH window, debugger said it could not evaluate it. I figured something was hung up so I shut everything down and rebooted my machine. When I tried it again later, the same problem.
After several hours of no success I exited VS, renamed the folder to "OLD" and recreated the solution from the older version. Immediately everything was looking fine. I started making the changes and testing. Each time I did a rebuild, everything looked fine until the last change. Here I am again.
The code works fine up to the point I have updated. The only issue is that the debugger windows are not working correctly. If a variable is declared at the Class level outside the Sub, they can be seen. The only variables the debugger is blind to are the local variables within the running Sub.
I looked for anyone else with this issue and only found a few items. I tried the suggestions but no joy. I am left with having to temporarily define the variables outside the sub so I can see them while debugging.
I am on VS 2013 Update 5.
Do I need to move to VS 2015 to get around this?
Thanks again for your time and assistance.
I am assuming that you haven't changed versions of visual studio since the last time a rebuild worked for you.
recreated solution from scratch, copied over base files and rebuilt solution and project (which worked for a few hours), until I did a rebuild project and problem appeared again
Based on this, you create it from scratch and everything works until you do the rebuild right? But you are copying the base files still and you have new library calls since the last time a rebuild didn't mess up the locals window. So one of those is almost assuredly the culprit.
Since the library calls seem to be the thing that changed based on your post start there. If you go back to the old code and do a rebuild does it fix it? Assuming so, put the library calls back one at a time until it breaks.
If going back to the old code doesn't fix it, create from scratch with the old code and copy over the base files and rebuild. If that fixes it, add new library calls one at a time and rebuild after each until it breaks.
If that doesn't fix it either, then you will need to dig deeper on what else might have changed.
You are copying base files so eliminate those as the problem if you can:
Are you able to use placeholders instead of the base files or something that won't necessarily work as a finished product but that will allow you to debug, rebuild, debug again to see if the problem is related to one of them? Check the dates on the base files and ensure that they haven't changed since the last time a rebuild worked.
Something you could do concurrently could be to have have a colleague do a rebuild on their machine and see if the same issue comes up for them. It would (almost) completely eliminate the possibility that it is a configuration / program corruption issue on yours. Alternately, there are some free vb.net compilers online that you can upload files and code to. I'm not sure if that would be practical for you (due to the components of your program and/or sensitivity of the data) or not and haven't ever tried any where there is C# code in there but I wouldn't think that would be an issue.

Xcode 4.4 unable to rename classes/variables

On both Xcode 4.4 and 4.4.1 I'm experiencing the same issue in that with the specific project I'm working on, I don't seem to be able to rename any classes or variables from the Refactor menu option.
Each time I try and do a rename, I type in the new name for the class/variable and click Preview at which point the bottom left begins a spinner with Finding files.... However, I then get a message saying:
The selection is not a type that can be renamed.
Make a different selection and try again.
I'm pretty sure that this is not an issue with my specific install of Xcode, because I can refactor other projects fine, it's just that I can't seem to be able to refactor this specific project.
Anyone with any ideas? I don't have any particularly exotic configuration for this project, it just seems to be a random affliction. I've deleted all of my derived data and re-indexed, but that doesn't seem to help.
Since it works OK in other projects, I'm thinking one thing I could try to do is re-generate the actual project file(s) itself. I don't know if there is a way to do this automatically?
If they're in dropbox get them out of there. It mangles project files. I've had it happen numerous times and at times it makes refactoring > renaming not work.
I have managed to solve this issue after trying many different things (tweaking project settings, pch, etc.) and it turns out there was a very simple (and totally counter-intuitive) method of fixing this issue.
All I have done is:-
Copy my entire project folder (so from Project to Project Copy).
Move Project (the original folder) to trash.
Rename Project Copy to Project.
Mysteriously, everything now works fine.
I really cannot figure out why this works. As mentioned previously, I had already deleted all derived data, etc. so I don't know why this should make things spontaneously work, but it does.
Would appreciate anyone who is able to shed some light on this as it does expose just how fiddly Xcode can be, and any understanding of what goes on under the hood is always beneficial.
Sounds like a buggered index.
I usually use the nuke from space option to delete everything in the derived data directory.
Unless you have changed it (I change mine to /tmp/bbum-derived), it'll be at:
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData
Thus, I'll quit Xcode and do:
rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData
Yes, it is a bit brute force, but it works. You can likely force Xcode to rebuild the index from the UI, but I never bother. Of course, I'm also installing quite a few "odd" builds of this and that as a part of my day job...
(that is an rm -rf. It means "nuke everything and don't ask" in unix parlance. It is dangerous. Do not mistype that command.)
It seems you have an active selection somewhere in the gui, perhaps some of your files or classes are selected ? Try unselect in every sub window and retry refactoring.
I'm a bit late to this thread, but I ran into the same problem today and I was able to get it to finally refactor correctly, thought I share it.
So in large part I did what bbum said, I closed xCode, nuked the Derived data for the project the class files were in and re opened the project. Doing just that, it didn't work; the key, I found (at least for me), is that I had to do a clean (command shift k) after xCode restarts. After that I was able to rename the class files again :)
Also as a side note, my project is divided into the main project, and a static library. When I had to rename classes in the static library, I had to quit the main project and do what I described in the static library itself. Somehow I got the same error described in the question when I tried to do the refactor/rename from the main project.
Good luck!
This thread was very helpful for me in determining the problem.
It turned out that I had to Repair Disk with Disk Utility. I had visited a site earlier that had hijacked Safari and was telling me to call a number for emergency repairs, an obvious scam.
I followed the Disk Utility instructions to repair disk (including restarting with CMD-R pressed). Another clue was that I tried to commit to git and Xcode said No Way, Jose.
Afterwards I was able to refactor and commit changes as if nothing ever happened. I hope this helps someone else as a possible cause to investigate.

Is there a new bug with flash 10 player using as2 publishing as an exe projector?

I do a lot of cd-roms using as2 but recently when I try to publish an exe file the full screen fs command just now freezes my exe file. I've seen the other post here about double quotes and changing case but is there any other new thing that makes it not work?
I don't think that projectors rely on the flash player's that your browser does, it's not updated as often as the browser, It's embedded into the exe. Thus, unless you've updated flash (the actual program), the version is the same as the one that published your previous projector. (Assuming you're talking about not previously having this problem)
However, you may have updated your video driver, or something with your operating system that would be causing the lock up.
What you can do, is try and see if there is an update to your suite. You also could try reverting to a non updated version if you did update.
Besides that, I suggest trying the projector on multiple computers to see if the problem is consistent.

'Cached' behaviour of 'hotfixed' dlls

Sometimes, a customer (or tester) needs a patch on an installation of the product I work on. Sometimes, I brew him a dll containing the fix, so that he can test it. He overwrites the old dll with the new version and restarts the app.
Every now and then, it appears that the 'new' dll isn't actually used, although I'm absolutely positive that my brand new sparkling bytes were copied over the old dll.
To make things worse, after the first 'hotfixed' run, when restarting the application, the new functionality clearly is loaded..., and the old behaviour is never to be seen again.
Has anyone observed this behaviour? Would it be possible that the XP loader sort of 'caches' recently used dlls?
(Note: this happens on XP SP2)
Yes, this is possible. Windows does not let you delete files which are in use, but strangely enough (for Windows at least) you can rename a DLL while it is still in use. If your tester uses something along
rename dll to dll.orig
copy new dll
restart application
it can happen, that the dll.orig version is still used if it has not been completely unloaded (because some still started app still has a reference to it).
This has bitten me a few times, too. I therefore usually change some behavior (mostly something of the header of the log-file) so that I can be sure that something has not been happened.
To workaround is simply: close all programs that use this DLL. Sysinternals Process Explorer helps to find the applications that use it.