[ale] odd Netscape bug

[Lex Spoon]

> I select a category from the pop-up list and then click on a
> link that redirects me to the bottom of the Web page. The keyboard
> immediately dies and refuses to accept any more input in the browser
> until I close it and restart it. This doesn't happen with Windoze and
> MAC versions of Netscape.
> 
> Has anyone else encountered this behavior? It happens every time and I
> have encountered it on some other Web pages as well. It would seem to be
> an X-server problem, but I have no idea what causes it. A fellow LINUX
> geek at work (someone way more advanced than me) was also puzzled by
> this.
> 


I've seen it lock up the whole X server.  It grabbed the mouse AND the
keyboard, and then it just sat there.  Since I didn't have any other
way to access my computer, I had to hit the reset button.

Two things went wrong (other than Netscape's bugs, which are given):

    1) Linux didn't notice me pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete, because
       X puts the keyboard in some RAW mode and Linux doesn't
       process key combinations in this mode.


    2) When the X server (XFree86 3.3.1, SVGA) gave a monopoly on
       keyboard and mouse events to Netscape, it started ignoring
       its own control combinations, like Ctrl-Alt-F1 and
       Ctrl-Alt-Backspace.

So the only process on the computer getting mouse or keyboard input
was netscape, and it was ignoring everything I sent it!

To be more general, even though Linux itself is a wonderful
multi-tasking, process-protecting system, an X server sitting on top
is a communal free-for-all where clients have to tiptoe around real
careful not to screw everything up.  It's a shame.


lex