Whenever I visit my Google homepage now, I have to wade through 5 or 6 JavaScript error notifications before I can do anything.  I suspect the culprit is the Gmail gadget for the Google homepage, as I continue to get script errors while trying to browse email in-situ on the homepage.  The gmail gadget is also missing scrollbars on long messages. None of these problems are present when using Gmail itself, just when using the Google homepage.

As a developer, I have to have script debugging enabled in my browser.  This enables me to debug my web app code in the browser, but it also has the unfortunate side effect of pointing out JavaScript errors on every site I visit.  It’s surprising how much crappy code is out there in production.  Slashdot has degraded into the pretty much unusable range in recent months, and now the Google homepage / Gmail widget is following suit.

The script errors are not specific to IE.  Firefox 3 also notes 5 critical errors in its error console when navigating to my Google homepage. To Firefox’s credit, recording these script errors in a log rather than with popup dialogs is much less intrusive than IE, but that also means that significant script errors can go unnoticed by developers testing their web apps with Firefox.

The errors are:

Error: _IG_AddCustomEventHandler is not a function
Source File: http://www.google.com/ig/f/lZ_kPjC_O4s/lib/libcore.js
Line: 43

Error: _IG_AddEventHandler is not a function
Source File: http://www.google.com/ig/f/irJtX0bmDdM/lib/libdynamic-height.js
Line: 4

Error: _IG_Json is undefined
Source File: http://www.google.com/ig/f/_pVqt4t_Qx8/lib/libviews.js
Line: 1

Error: _IG_Prefs._parseURL is not a function
Source File: http://www.google.com/ig/f/lZ_kPjC_O4s/lib/libcore.js
Line: 78

Error: _IFPC is undefined
Source File: http://www.google.com/ig/f/irJtX0bmDdM/lib/libdynamic-height.js
Line: 2

So, to whoever turned on the new code a few days ago for either the Google Homepage or the Gmail widget for the homepage:  Please review your code and fix the crappy script that you’re dumping on us.  Your developer bretheren thank you for a speedy resolution so that we may get back to debugging our apps instead of debugging yours.

This simple cost-savings choice has now cost me nearly 3 nights of repeated installation wrestling, trying to get the system set up the way *I* want it.  Actually, the tally is more than 3 nights, since I’ll be starting over again this weekend with a new Vista Ultimate install.

Now, if I were the kind of person who leaves everything at its default settings, I probably wouldn’t be writing this rant now.  But I do change defaults, and that often brings out any and every wart in any installation package. 

I prefer to partition my hard disk into two partitions:  one for the OS and most applications, and the other for “data” – stuff that I actually work on, utility apps, command line stuff, and so forth.  I find this helps keep the high volume of file activity (compiling code, creating and deleting hundreds of files at a time) and associated disk fragmentation from polluting the partition that contains the OS and primary apps.  The system partition is “mostly read only” and shouldn’t fragment badly on its own, other than by continual system updates and registry rot.  (Always defrag after any significant software install, especially large service packs from Microsoft)

Vendors never configure hard disks with multiple partitions any more.  It’s always a monolithic slab of sectors, and always a pain to repartition. 

So I pop the Vista Ultimate upgrade DVD into the machine while running Vista Home, and step through the prompts (including entering the product activation key code) to the point where it asks if I want to upgrade the existing installation or do “advanced” stuff like repartition.  Hey!  Let’s repartition!  Bzzt.  Can’t do that from the setup launched within Vista.  You can only do that by booting from the DVD.

Ok, so let’s shut down and boot from the DVD.  System->Shutdown-> Please wait half an hour while 42 updates are installed for your new Vista Home installation.  Arg!

Come back after dinner to boot from DVD.  Step through the DVD setup steps (including entering the product activation key code) to the point where it asks about upgrade or repartition.  Hey! Let’s repartition! Bzzt. Can’t do that with the product key you entered.  Arg!

Vista Upgrade DVDs can’t repartition the drive on installation.  Period.  The laptop’s OEM installed Vista Home edition can’t repartition the drive on installation either, since rebuilding the system from the recovery DVD sets it up exactly as it was delivered: one partition.  Arg!

Time to go get the real Vista Ultimate product DVD and start over.  Slick the disk and build from the bottom up.

m. Th. wrote:

First of all, Danny, I’m very glad to see you here… …but let’s start a little ’short story’ (dunno if you remember them) …

Danny Thorpe wrote:

Yes, I’m now working on core infrastructure for the PicLens plugin in its plethora of browser/platform combinations: IE/Windows, Firefox/Windows, and Safari/Mac. Firefox/Mac is on the horizon and Firefox/Linux is on the wish list.

You forgot Opera.

It’s a little difficult to build plugins for a browser that doesn’t support plugins, wouldn’t you agree?

m. Th. wrote:

But, imho, you forget other thing, much more important: You are a compiler guy. (At least from Delphi 1 since I know you, IIRC). God knows if you are good or bad, but definitely you are a compiler guy, imho.

Your memory transcends delerium, or you have been grossly misinformed.

I did not begin dabbling in the Delphi compiler code until around Delphi 5, after there was no one left to work on the compiler. I saw a vacancy, and I stepped into it. While it is true that I had passion and vision for where the Delphi language could be taken, and some small success in working on the compiler, that is only a partial truth, a selective filter in the eye of idolatry.

The whole truth is that I have worked on a wide variety of stuff in Delphi and outside of Delphi, moving from one technology area to another by “following my nose” ala Alice in Wonderland. For as many areas as I have dug into in software, there are twice as many creative outlets I tinker with outside of software: woodworking, metallurgy, ceramic flux chemistry, cider making, and other fields that blend science and art.

One of the worst things you can do to a creative person is brand them with a label. A label is the kiss of death for cross-discipline creativity.

I left Borland and Delphi not for lack of interesting things to investigate next, but because I was no longer allowed to follow my nose to explore new directions. In achieving small successes with the compiler, I received the “compiler guy” label, and was suddenly too valuable to the project to be allowed to work on anything else. At the same time, Borland corporate made it clear that while the company was burning down around us it had no interest whatsoever in investing in Delphi to push the envelope and advance Delphi’s thought leadership postion in the tools industry. So even within the compiler coffin, there was no room to breathe.

Even in a brief discussion concerning my getting involved with the tools group spinoff later retracted to Borland subsidiary, the only thing Borland brought to the table was the “compiler guy” label. Why would I return to the cage I had just mustered the courage to escape?

m. Th. wrote:

My son, WHAT are you doing out there??? Looked at cooliris.com – just cool, but com’on Danny, browser plug-ins? Isn’t, of course, something bad per se (in fact not at all), but, again, AFAIK you, doesn’t fit to your way of being.

I’m following my passion and fulfilling my need to grow and evolve.

Clearly, that does not fit the guilded cage you imagine for me.

Clearly, you don’t know me.

m. Th. wrote:

Some small recommendations: 1. open your browser 2. type in www.codegear.com 3. Choose from the menu ‘About Us | Jobs’ 4. Follow the instructions on screen. I’m pretty sure that there’s something for you. (A R&D engineer perhaps? – as you were in D2 times?…) Then you’ll find your peace of mind, imho. Or, more directly, speak with Allen. Just my 2cents, you know…

An invitation to roll back time – you are truly generous! Ah, to be 20something again. To be a wide-eyed junior engineer working with Anders and Chuck, Gary and Zack and even Philippe, redefining the development tools playing field in perilous and exciting new directions.

Very tempting, your offer. Doubt it, I do. 20something, I am not. Borland of 1990, Codegear is not.

Time marches on. So shall I.