Message Munge

Harv · Sep 4, 2000

Muhammad -

Congratulations on a superb message board. I do this sort of thing for a living myself and I have to tell you this is one of the cleanest, friendliest sites on the entire internet.

/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Having said that (and it needed saying), I have occassionaly noticed my messages getting slightly munged, sometimes after I preview them. What puzzles me is that it's usually just a half-dozen characters or so, and the munge is still ascii characters, sometimes resembling valid text from somewhere else.

Being able to edit a message even after it's been posted is a terrific feature (sometimes the mistakes are truly mine /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif), so the damage is still fixable, but I was wondering if you or anyone else has had the same experience? I'd hate to think you're running a "Harv" filter which automatically takes pot shots at just me. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Thanks for a really excellent site.

Muhammad · Sep 4, 2000

Harv,

Thanks for the kind words!

About the messages getting munged... hmm, what browser are you using? Also, could you give a specific example of exactly what happens? Maybe you could leave the next message you post that gets munged as it is, so I can take a look and try to figure it out. I haven't had this happen... any bug that is reported or that I get and can duplicate, gets fixed up asap. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

PaulB · Sep 4, 2000

Har$%#v - All o%^&^$f my possssssts come thr(*&()^%gh clear aaaaaas a b)_(eLL, so it MMMMMMust be s()%^%#$#methING WRON^*%$G WITH yOOOOOOU

Bird · Sep 4, 2000

Gosh, Muhammad, PaulB's a lot of help, isn't he?/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif And where'd that word "munge" come from? I never heard it before and it ain't in my antique Webster's; closest thing is "mungo" defined as "reclaimed wool of poor quality and very short staple." Is there a relationship there somewhere?/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

Harv · Sep 4, 2000

Muhammad -

I run various versions of Netscape and IE on both Macs and PC's, specifically to test my own sutff. I was running Netscape 4.7 for Mac when I last saw the problem (no wise-cracks about Macs, please). The problem is very intermittent, but I"ll try to capture some meaningful data next time it happens.

If nobody else is experiencing this problem, then it's clearly that Harv filter you installed.

PaulB's message came through just fine -- go figure. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Here's an easier one, Muhammad -- whenever I'm reading posts the "<<Back To..." link near the top of the page is missing a semicolon after the non-breaking space:

<<Back to the Feedback & More&nbspForum

Bird -- I guess "munge" is a computer geek term. It's been in my vocabulary so long I didn't realize it wasn't in the dictionary. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif I guess the important thing is that Muhammad knows the word. Then again, I bet Muhammad knows a lot of words we never heard of. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Muhammad · Sep 4, 2000

Bird...

Yeah I was going to tell Paul to get his cat or dog off the keyboard... or something. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Munge is used in the coding world a bit. To munge data or munge a program would be best described as jumbling it up or rewriting it... but not in a good way. Maybe harv has another meaning... he used it first! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Harv · Sep 4, 2000

Hey, Muhammad!!!

It just did it again! This time it grabbed part of an image. Here's a snapshot:

Now, after I took the snapshot the problem cleared itself up without refreshing the page! That tells me that it is my problem, not yours. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Now I'm suspicious that it has to do with the fact that my computer is on 24 hours a day, I never reboot unless I have to, and I typically have 10 or more applications running simultaneously. Netscape is always running (don't want to miss a second of Tractorbynet) and it might very well have memory leaks. I'll try rebooting to clear out any cobwebs and see how long it takes for the problem to return.

Maybe this is too much geek talk for an open forum. Shall I take it private?

Muhammad · Sep 4, 2000

Oh, right... netscape.

IE5 seems to read the code despite the missing semicolon... probably why it is missing. But I'll get that fixed.

Muhammad · Sep 4, 2000

Now that is way off! I've been testing in netscape, and the only thing that I see munged is... well nothing, just the missing semicolon there, as you mentioned.

You could have something going on there... I try to reboot every couple of days since I, too, am a multi-tasker (9 applications open now /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif)

BTW, I have an update that will clear up a couple of minor layout differences in netscape that don't show in IE. Should be soon now.

This is what the feedback forum is for... and I know that Bird likes to read the tech-talk messages more than those 'tractor' messages in the Kubota category! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Let me know if restarting does anything...

glennmac · Sep 4, 2000

Harv, this discussion is somewhat solipsistic as between you and Muhammad and rather mungey to the rest of us, but I dont mind watching it. But, then again, I seem to be becoming afflicted with hypermaniacaltractorbynetianmasochism.

Glenn

Harv · Sep 4, 2000

Thanks for your incredibly quick responses, Muhammad!

You don't have to lecture me about Netscape. One of the key factors that has kept me from launching my new business is that it is virtually impossible to create web pages with any sophistication at all that will display and work properly on all browsers and all platforms. It's not even possible to accurately determine which browser/platform the viewer is using in all cases (even if you were inclined to write separate code for each).

You've done it right. Give first priority to IE on Windows and you're 90% home free. I'm a staunch Mac advocate and Netscape used to be the better browser, but now that I'm starting a business I realized that I had to buy a PC and start using IE (which is now clearly better, anyway).

The painful irony here is that since my PC is brand new and my 3 PowerMacs are old, the PC is, like, 5 times faster than my Macs. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Harv · Sep 4, 2000

God, I hope that last message from Glenn was munged...

Muhammad · Sep 4, 2000

...it is virtually impossible to create web pages with any sophistication at all that will display and work properly on all browsers and all platforms.

Tell me about it. Netscape requires so much more coding to get a similar result... and even then there are still differences.

But... with that, our next forum update should display as close to exactly the same in both as we're going to get. Keeping it simple. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I think we're at about 85% IE (most 5.0+) and about 12% Netscape (thankfully most of those users have 4.7+). But, since 12% of our users adds up to thousands per month, we can't ignore them... so while some things look slightly different, we certainly want all users to see a similar site.

Edited by Muhammad on 9/4/00 11:36 AM.

Anonymous Poster · Sep 4, 2000

My messages used to do that too, then mysteriously stopped. It got to the point that I would "trick" it so after my message I would type xxxxxxxxx just to give it something to garble without affecting my message. Sometimes I would not correct it and my message would end in ewrp98u23 or something.

Maybe you just have to post a few more messages so the machine starts to feel comfortable with you!

del

Bird · Sep 4, 2000

Heck, I might even learn something some day (even if there is only a slim chance)./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif But I know I'll never remember that "solipsistic" word./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

gordon · Sep 4, 2000

Dang guys tone it down/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
I've got the dictionary on my lap as I write this reply just to try and keep up with you'all.
Good thing is it does have alot of pictures--the dictionary that is!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
But I can say this my vocabulary has been widened today and it sure is pretty narrow so alittle dictionary work never hurts./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Gordon

scruffy · Sep 4, 2000

Wow! I just confirmed that I am NOT a computer geek! While I work with them everyday, write DCL Script, do some mumps stuff, I am NOT a programmer. (They're all nuts, I'm not!) I didn't know the 'munge' word! Leaves me out of the geek catagory. Gonna be a good Monday after all!