Firefox 2 and unresponsive scripts: What purpose do they serve?

[Nomen]

My hosts file started with a version from MVPS some years ago and instead of updating it I've just been adding custom entries - probably hundreds - ever since. I'm also running something called the "Abyss" web server - it serves up (https only) any files that my hosts file would ordinarily block so long as I've gone out and gotten a local copy of said files and stored them within the Abyss web-server directory (c:\Inetpub\wwwroot). I note that the vast majority of these are .js files. I mention all the above in case it relates to the following:

I have the firefox addon "yes script" (not "no script") which is a list of sites or hosts that are not allowed to run javascript.

Yet I encounter, on a daily basis, brief browsing pauses followed by the message that "a script on this page is not responding". I cancel the script and the site or page continues to load - it is not apparent what is missing or what functionality is lost because the script did not run.

So I'm asking here - what is the usual function of these nuisance scripts?

What did I not experience because I blocked a script with "yes script" or I cancelled a "non-responding" script?

Is Firefox-2 capable of running *ANY* java scripts that are found on a typical website today? Or is FF2 running *MANY* such scripts correctly and silently - I just don't know it - and these are scripts that are necessary and / or make the browsing experience with FF2 tolerable today?

In other words, if I were to totally turn off javascript functionality for all sites on my FF2 browser, would I notice anything different other than not seeing any more "unresponsive script" messages?

[Tripredacus]

Firefox isn't the only browser to toss up a message like that, I remember having seen it in IE also. I never really looked into what the cause was back then.

I can say that websites nowadays can be mostly un-usable without javascript. This is a bad because you can find sites where you can't see anything at all because they use the js for generating the pageview or menus or whatever.

[submix8c]

XP/2K3

FF-12

NoScript

 

Msg - "A script not responding. Continue running it?"

Response - "Yes, and always do it."

 

I'll sometimes get a delay from (it's "working...") scripts, but they do eventually complete.

 

I can't remember if FF2 had that option.

[CamTron]

It could be a number of issues. I think those unresponsive scripts are caused by the page containing some Javascript feature that old versions of Firefox doesn't support or has a different implementation, and sometimes that causes the script to go into an endless loop or generate errors. Javascript is an ever-changing language, and is far from standard between browsers. I tried Firefox 2 recently on Windows 95 and noticed a lot of those messages. Another issue could be that the script is just running too slow.Javascript is a very slow and inefficient language, and websites are becoming more and more bloated with it, so slow hardware may cause a script to take a long time. You can maybe try increasing the value of dom.max_script_run_time in about:config. Mine is set to 10 on Firefox 38.

 

If you wish to find the specific issue, Firefox has a Javascript debugger and an Error Console (from the Tools menu), which you can use to pinpoint the line of code causing the problem. I've searched, but I don't think there's a setting to automatically kill unresponsive scripts.

 

*sigh* I remember when browsing the web was more like viewing a document than running a virtual machine.

[Nomen]

My setting for dom.max_script_run_time was 5 - I changed it to 10. Looking at the error console, here's an example of what I see (if anything can be done about them...)

Under "Errors"

===============

Error: _.pf is not a function

Source File: https:// apis.google.com/_/scs/apps-static/_/js/k=oz.gapi.en_(etc)

Error: iframes is not defined

Source File: https://

apis.google.com/se/0/_/+1/fastbutton?usegapi=1&_moz-userdefined=(etc)

Error: window.googleapis has no properties

Source File: https://

apis.google.com/_/scs/apps-static/_/js/k=oz.plusone.en_(etc)

Error: a has no properties

Source File: https://

apis.google.com/js/plusone.js

Line: 43

==============

Under "Warnings":

=============

Warning: Error in parsing value for property 'display'. Declaration dropped.

Source File: http://

www.msfn.org/board/public/style_css/css_20/ipb_print.css

The following all reference Source File: http://

www.msfn.org/board/topic/173990-firefox-2-and-unresponsive-scripts-what-purpose-do-they-serve/

Warning: Error in parsing value for property 'display'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Unknown property 'box-sizing'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Unknown property '-webkit-box-sizing'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Unknown property '-webkit-font-smoothing'. Declaration dropped.

The following all reference Source File: https://

apis.google.com/se/0/_/+1/fastbutton?usegapi=1&_moz-userdefined (etc)

Warning: Unrecognized at-rule or error parsing at-rule '@font-face'.

Warning: Error in parsing value for property 'display'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Expected end of value for property but found 'rgba'. Error in parsing value for property 'border'.

Warning: Unknown property 'border-radius'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Unknown property '-moz-box-shadow'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Unknown property 'box-shadow'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Unknown property 'box-sizing'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Unknown property 'transition'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Unknown property 'animation'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Unknown property '-moz-transform-origin'. Declaration dropped.

Warning: Error in parsing value for property 'border-color'. Declaration dropped.

==============

Under "Messages" :

==============

Security Error: Content at https://apis.google.com/_/scs/apps-static/_/js/k=oz.gapi.en_(etc)may not load data from http://

www.msfn.org/board/topic/173990-firefox-2-and-unresponsive-scripts-what-purpose-do-they-serve/.

Security Error: Content at https:// apis.google.com/_/scs/apps-static/_/js/k=oz.gapi.en_(etc) may not load data from http://

www.msfn.org/board/topic/173990-firefox-2-and-unresponsive-scripts-what-purpose-do-they-serve/.

Security Error: Content at https:// apis.google.com/js/plusone.js may not load data from http://

www.msfn.org/board/topic/173990-firefox-2-and-unresponsive-scripts-what-purpose-do-they-serve/.

No chrome package registered for chrome://navigator/locale/navigator.properties .

No chrome package registered for chrome://navigator-region/locale/region.properties .

No chrome package registered for chrome://communicator-region/locale/region.properties .

===============

I don't know if any of the above are js related. ?

Would be nice to have an add-on that can scan web content and re-write code items that don't conform to FF2 (such as the above) so that they either work correctly or are not executed if they can't be made to work.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Nomen