Scriptable Plugin, Javascript returns undefined - plugins

Im trying to write a scritable plugin and I am using mozilla's example below as my guide, as well as looking at firebreath to see how it wraps the code. I am getting stuck on the return value to javascript.
Mozilla scriptable example
When javascript calls my function the Allocate,HasProperty,HasMethod,Invoke all get called. I return back the result in Invoke and the javascript variable is undefined or crashes the browser when modifying the result.
STRINGZ_TO_NPVARIANT(_strdup("Hello World"), *result);

STRINGZ_TO_NPVARIANT is actually a bit dangerous; when you put a string into an NPVariant object you give ownership of that memory to the browser. However, if you didn't allocate that memory with NPN_MemAlloc things may explode when it tries to release that memory (possibly the source of your crash).
Look at what STRINGZ_TO_NPVARIANT is actually doing and don't use it 'til you understand how it works; until then, you may try performing the steps by hand so you have a better understanding. Allocate memory using NPN_MemAlloc and then strcpy your string to it. I bet this fixes your problem; after you've got it figured out build your own inline functions or whatnot to clean up the code again.

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stm32f4 HardFault_Handler - need debugging advice

I'm working on a project based on the stm32f4discovery board using IAR Embedded Workbench (though I'm very close to the 32kb limit on the free version so I'll have to find something else soon). This is a learning project for me and so far I've been able to solve most of my issues with a few google searches and a lot of trial and error. But this is the first time I've encountered a run-time error that doesn't appear to be caused by a problem with my logic and I'm pretty stuck. Any general debugging strategy advice is welcome.
So here's what happens. I have an interrupt on a button; each time the button is pressed, the callback function runs my void cal_acc(uint16_t* data) function defined in stm32f4xx_it.c. This function gathers some data, and on the 6th press, it calls my void gn(float32_t* data, float32_t* beta) function. Eventually, two functions are called, gn_resids and gn_jacobian. The functions are very similar in structure. Both take in 3 pointers to 3 arrays of floats and then modify the values of the first array based on the second two. Unfortunately, when the second function gn_jacobian exits, I get the HardFault.
Please look at the link (code structure) for a picture showing how the program runs up to the fault.
Thank you very much! I appreciate any advice or guidance you can give me,
-Ben
Extra info that might be helpful below:
Running in debug mode, I can step into the function and run through all the lines click by click and it's OK. But as soon as I run the last line and it should exit and move on to the next line in the function where it was called, it crashes. I have also tried rearranging the order of the calls around this function and it is always this one that crashes.
I had been getting a similar crash on the first function gn_resids when one of the input pointers pointed to an array that was not defined as "static". But now all the arrays are static and I'm quite confused - especially since I can't tell what is different between the gn_resids function that works and the gn_jacobian function that does not work.
acc1beta is declared as a float array at the beginning of main.c and then also as extern float32_t acc1beta[6] at the top of stm32f4xx_it.c. I want it as a global variable; there is probably a better way to do this, but it's been working so far with many other variables defined in the same way.
Here's a screenshot of what I see when it crashes during debug (after I pause the session) IAR view at crash
EDIT: I changed the code of gn_step to look like this for a test so that it just runs gn_resids twice and it crashes as soon as it gets to the second call - I can't even step into it. gn_jacobian is not the problem.
void gn_step(float32_t* data, float32_t* beta) {
static float32_t resids[120];
gn_resids(resids, data, beta);
arm_matrix_instance_f32 R;
arm_mat_init_f32(&R, 120, 1, resids);
// static float32_t J_f32[720];
// gn_jacobian(J_f32, data, beta);
static float32_t J_f32[120];
gn_resids(J_f32, data, beta);
arm_matrix_instance_f32 J;
arm_mat_init_f32(&J, 120, 1, J_f32);
Hardfaults on Cortex M devices can be generated by various error conditions, for example:
Access of data outside valid memory
Invalid instructions
Division by zero
It is possible to gather information about the source of the hardfault by looking into some processor registers. IAR provides a debugger macro that helps to automate that process. It can be found in the IAR installation directory arm\config\debugger\ARM\vector_catch.mac. Please refer to this IAR Technical Note on Debugging Hardfaults for details on using this macro.
Depending on the type of the hardfault that occurs in your program you should try to narrow down the root cause within the debugger.

release build variable corruption when using ne10 math library assembly function

has anyone experience the following issue?
A stack variable getting changed/corrupted after calling ne10 assembly function such as ne10_len_vec2f_neon?
e.g
float gain = 8.0;
ne10_len_vec2f_neon(src, dst, len);
after the call to ne10_len_vec2f_neon, the value of gain changes as its memory is getting corrupted.
1. Note this only happens when the project is compiled in release build but not debug build.
2. Does Ne10 assembly functions preserve registers?
3. Replacing the assembly function call to c equivalent such as ne10_len_vec2f_c and both release and debug build seem to work OK.
thanks for any help on this. Not sure if there's an inherent issue within the program or it is really the call to ne10_len_vec2f_neon causing the corruption with release build.enter code here
I had a quick rummage through the master NEON code here:
https://github.com/projectNe10/Ne10/blob/master/modules/math/NE10_len.neon.s
... and it doesn't really touch address-based stack at all, so not sure it's a stack problem in memory.
However based on what I remember of the NEON procedure call standard q4-q7 (alias d8-d15 or s16-s31) should be preserved by the callee, and as far as I can tell that code is clobbering q4-6 without the necessary save/restore, so it does indeed look like it's clobbering the stack in registers.
In the failed case do you know if gain is still stored in FPU registers, and if yes which ones? If it's stored in any of s16/17/18/19 then this looks like the problem. It also seems plausible that a compiler would choose to use s16 upwards for things it needs to keep across a function call, as it avoids the need to touch in-RAM stack memory.
In terms of a fix, if you perform the following replacements:
s/q4/q8/
s/q5/q9/
s/q6/q10/
in that file, then I think it should work; no means to test here, but those higher register blocks are not callee saved.

Cython callback causing memory corruption/segfaults

I am interfacing python with a c++ library using cython. I need a callback function that the c++ code can call. I also need to pass a reference to a specific python object to this function. This is all quite clear from the callback demo.
However I get various errors when the callback is called from c++ thread (pthread):
Pass function pointer and class/object (as void*) to c++
Store the pointers within c++
Start new thread (pthread) running a loop
Call function using the stored function pointer and pass back the class pointer (void*)
In python: cast void* back to class/object
Call a method of above class/object (Error)
Steps 2 and 3 are in c++.
The errors are mostly segmentation faults but sometimes I get complaints about some low level python calls.
I have the exact same code where I create a thread in python and call the callback directly. This works OK. So the callback itself is working.
I do need a separate thread running in c++ since this thread is communicating with hardware and on occasion calling my callback.
I have also triple-checked all the pointers that are being passed around. They point to valid locations.
I suspect there are some problems when using cython classes from a c++ thread..?
I am using Python 2.6.6 on Ubuntu.
So my question is:
Can I manipulate python objects from a non-python thread?
If not, is there a way can make the thread python-compatible? (pthread)
This is the minimal callback that already causes problems when called from c++ thread:
cdef int CheckCollision(float* Angles, void* user_data):
self = <CollisionDetector>user_data
return self.__sizeof__() # <====== Error
No, you must not manipulate Python objects without acquiring GIL in the first place. You must use PyGILState_Ensure() + PyGILState_Release() (see the PyGILState_Ensure documentation)
You can ensure that your object will be not deleted by python if you explicitly take the reference, and release it when you're not using it anymore with Py_INCREF() and Py_DECREF(). If you pass the callback to your c++, and if you don't have a reference taken anymore, maybe your python object is freed, and the crash happen (see the Py_INCREF documentatation).
Disclamer: i'm not saying this is your issue, just giving you tips to track down the bug :)

Will inserting the same `<script>` into the DOM twice cause a second request in any browsers?

I've been working on a bit of JavaScript code that, under certain conditions, lazy-loads a couple of different libraries (Clicky Web Analytics and the Sizzle selector engine).
This script is downloaded millions of times per day, so performance optimization is a major concern. To date, I've employed a couple of flags like script_loading and script_loaded to try to ensure that I don't load either library more than once (by "load," I mean requesting the scripts after page load by inserting a <script> element into the DOM).
My question is: Rather than rely on these flags, which have gotten a little unwieldy and hard to follow in my code (think callbacks and all of the pitfalls of asynchronous code), is it cross-browser safe (i.e., back to IE 6) and not detrimental to performance to just call a simple function to insert a <script> element whenever I reach a code branch that needs one of these libraries?
The latter would still ensure that I only load either library when I need it, and would also simplify and reduce the weight of my code base, but I need to be absolutely sure that this won't result in additional, unnecessary browser requests.
My hunch is that appending a <script> element multiple times won't be harmful, as I assume browsers should recognize a duplicate src URL and rely on a local cached copy. But, you know what happens when we assume...
I'm hoping that someone is familiar enough with the behavior of various modern (and not-so-modern, such as IE 6) browsers to be able to speak to what will happen in this case.
In the meantime, I'll write a test to try to answer this first-hand. My hesitation is just that this may be difficult and cumbersome to verify with certainty in every browser that my script is expected to support.
Thanks in advance for any help and/or input!
Got an alternative solution.
At the point where you insert the new script element in the DOM, could you not do a quick scan of existing script elements to see if there is another one with the same src? If there is, don't insert another?
Javascript code on the same page can't run multithreaded, so you won't get any race conditions in the middle of this or anything.
Otherwise you are just relying on the caching behaviour of current browsers (and HTTP proxies).
The page is processed as a stream. If you load the same script multiple times, it will be run every time it is included. Obviously, due to the browser cache, it will be requested from the server only once.
I would stay away from this approach of inserting script tags for the same script multiple times.
The way I solve this problem is to have a "test" function for every script to see if it is loaded. E.g. for sizzle this would be "function() { return !!window['Sizzle']; }". The script tag is only inserted if the test function returns false.
Each time you add a script to your page,even if it has the same src the browser may found it on the local cache or ask the server if the content is changed.
Using a variable to check if the script is included is a good way to reduce loading and it's very simple:
for example this may works for you:
var LOADED_JS=Object();
function js_isIncluded(name){//returns true if the js is already loaded
return LOADED_JS[name]!==undefined;
}
function include_js(name){
if(!js_isIncluded(name)){
YOUR_LAZY_LOADING_FUNCTION(name);
LOADED_JS[name]=true;
}
}
you can also get all script elements and check the src,my solution is better because it hase the speed and simplicity of an hash array and the script src has an absolute path even if you set it with a relative path.
you may also want to init the array with the scripts normally loaded(without lazy loading)on the page init to avoid double request.
For what it's worth, if you define the scripts as type="module", they will only be loaded and executed once.

iPhone OS memory problem - how to debug?

I have a pretty weird problem in my iPhone app which is, I think, related to memory getting corrupted:
At one point, I need to sort an array, which I do with -[sortArrayUsingFunction].
The result is not correct unless I either allocate some memory with something like void *test = malloc(2 * sizeof( int )) before the method call or have, e.g., a call to NSLog() (which is never invoked) in the sorting function.
In other words: the sorting only works if I slightly increase the memory that was used before calling the sorting function. I think this is because at some point, memory gets corrupted.
How do you debug something like this?
It sounds like some of your code is using already released objects. A lot of help with debugging this kind of errors is provided in Appleā€™s great Mac OS X Debugging Magic tech note, especially the foundation part.
For your case I'd disable autorelease pools (setting the environment variable NSEnableAutoreleasePool=NO) or use the zombie feature (NSZombieEnabled=YES) to find places where you send messages to released objects.
Try running your program in the simulator under Valgrind:
http://valgrind.org/
And how to use it under the simulator:
http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/code/iphone/iPhone_Simulator_Valgrind.20081224.html
You may have to change the VALGRIND path in the code example depending on where it gets installed.
Such things can be a challenge to debug. There are some tools for detecting out-of-bounds accesses and such on other platforms, so I presume there would be something for the iPhone, however I don't know of any.
Perhaps you should store two copies of the array, and compare them for differences. Print out the differences. The nature of the "junk" that was introduced to one of the arrays might give a hint as to where it came from.
Also just go through the code that runs before this point, and re-read it (or better yet, get someone else to read it). You might spot a bug.