[Bug 156882] Re: Javascript 1.5 does not work in Firefox

[Fox]

I beg forgiveness from Firefox and Ubuntu.  I got a few minutes to poke
around with the problem, and the issue is totally the website's fault.

For those who are having the same issue as I am, I've found a workaround
until the WebTycho folks at UMUC get their code straight:

In the URL bar, type 'about:config' to get to Firefox's configuration preferences.
In the filter bar, type 'general.useragent.vendor'
Right-click 'general.useragent.vendor' and click modify
Delete 'Ubuntu', leaving the line blank, and click OK

Everything seems to be working for me now.

I had missed a line at the top of the WebTycho's "Check your browser"
page that called "/js/browsercheck.js"  That page contains all the
javascript they use to try to guess what you're running.  Attempting to
figure out what they're trying to do (I don't know javascript nearly as
well as I know other languages), I found they were using various
useragent settings to determine the javascript version of the client.
After fooling around with most of my own useragent preferences (on my
Gutsy box and the Feisty box I hadn't yet upgraded) and checking the
browsercheck.js page often, I guessed my way to the above workaround.
If you compare the screen before and after the change:

On my Fiesty box (Does work)
User Agent:  Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20061201 Firefox/2.0.0.6 (Ubuntu-feisty)

Gutsy before (Does not work)
User Agent:  Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071022 Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.8

Gutsy after (Does work)
User Agent:  Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071022 Firefox/2.0.0.8

Looking at some of the comments sprinkled about, they haven't updated
their detection javascript since 2003.  I'll be sending them an email to
see if they can get the thing updated, but I'm not holding my breath.
>From what I've been reading, you shouldn't be using the UserAgent field
for browser capabilities anyway.

Hope that helps!

-Fox

-- 
Javascript 1.5 does not work in Firefox
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/156882
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