Effectively unable to display large files

[Tony Wirth]

If I try to open a csv file of say 36kb, something nasty happens and my firefox browser hangs. This occurs both on XP and MacOS. Someone suggested to me that it might be a problem with Javascript. I lose a few minutes each time this occurs as it takes some time to shut down and restart the web browser.

[David Coles (dcoles)]

I can confirm that this is a problem for Firefox 3.6 on Windows when trying to open a 680.0 kB CSV file.

If you wait for Firefox to tell you a script is making the browser unresponsive you can stop the script and edit the file (though you only get ~1/2 the line numbers).

The file editor is really designed for small scripts and so may not handle large files very well. This seems to be a recurring problem with almost any Javascript based editor. At this time the best option would be to use Excel or a similar program to view large CSV files (CSV files in the editor are pretty hard to look at).

Perhaps we can disable the Javascript editor on files greater than a certain threshold? Another option is a dedicated CSV table editor.

Chrome 5.0 seems to open the file fine.
IE8 opens the file, but does not show line numbering beyond the second line.

[Tony Wirth (awirth)]

I'll try it on Chrome.

What's particularly frustrating about this kind of bug is that the
last time I opened the file was by accident, and yet I lost a few
minutes.

I think it's reasonable to turn off editing for such large files: it
would be sufficient just to view as plain text, without the
opportunity to edit.

T

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 10:35 PM, David Coles <email address hidden> wrote:
> I can confirm that this is a problem for Firefox 3.6 on Windows when
> trying to open a 680.0 kB CSV file.
>
> If you wait for Firefox to tell you a script is making the browser
> unresponsive you can stop the script and edit the file (though you only
> get ~1/2 the line numbers).
>
> The file editor is really designed for small scripts and so may not
> handle large files very well. This seems to be a recurring problem with
> almost any Javascript based editor. At this time the best option would
> be to use Excel or a similar program to view large CSV files (CSV files
> in the editor are pretty hard to look at).
>
> Perhaps we can disable the Javascript editor on files greater than a
> certain threshold? Another option is a dedicated CSV table editor.
>
> Chrome 5.0 seems to open the file fine.
> IE8 opens the file, but does not show line numbering beyond the second line.
>
> ** Tags added: filebrowser firefox js ui
>
> ** Changed in: ivle
>   Importance: Undecided => Low
>
> --
> Effectively unable to display large files
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/625114
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Informatics Virtual Learning Environment: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> If I try to open a csv file of say 36kb, something nasty happens and my firefox browser hangs. This occurs both on XP and MacOS. Someone suggested to me that it might be a problem with Javascript. I lose a few minutes each time this occurs as it takes some time to shut down and restart the web browser.
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ivle/+bug/625114/+subscribe
>