Pages: [1] 2 3 :: one page |
|
Author |
Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 11 post(s) |
|
CCP Phantom
C C P C C P Alliance
7511
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 15:17:57 -
[1] - Quote
Sometimes the story of hunting down a bug (and fixing it), is so thrilling, so intriguing, that it simply has to be shared with you!
Enjoy CCP Snorlax' story of how he hunted down and fixed one of the oldest bugs in EVE. Have fun with the latest dev blog Sleeping beauty - How one of the oldest bugs in EVE got hunted down and resolved!
CCP Phantom - Senior Community Developer
|
|
Squizz Caphinator
Primary.
204
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 15:31:11 -
[2] - Quote
I love it when sneaky bugs get squashed. Great find!
Various projects I enjoy putting my free time into:
https://zkillboard.com | https://evewho.com
|
Tonto Auri
Vhero' Multipurpose Corp
262
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 15:40:04 -
[3] - Quote
With all due respect to the blog authorGǪ http://9gag.com/gag/5533044
Two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
-- Harlan Ellison
|
Soldarius
O C C U P Y Test Alliance Please Ignore
1568
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 15:41:02 -
[4] - Quote
I have seen this bug quite a few times. It seems most evident when the speed indicator stops updating. But shields, armor, or heat indicators not updating in the middle of a fight can get you killed and you would never even realize it. I know this has happened to me.
Glad to see such an insidious bug crushed beneath the boot heels of progress.
Hi Squizz.
http://youtu.be/YVkUvmDQ3HY
|
Anare Sylvanmir
State War Academy Caldari State
0
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 15:53:41 -
[5] - Quote
I can't pretend to even begin to inderstand half of what was discussed in this article... but the fact that CCP is willing to "show its work" and the in and outs of their work is amazing and one f the reasons I always keep coming back to EvE!!! thank you devs, I know that those in the know appreciate this kind of feedback and community engagement!!! |
Cass Tamuri
Nebula Rasa Holdings Nebula Rasa
0
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 16:19:20 -
[6] - Quote
Thanks for sharing and good hunting! |
Hagika
Standard Corp 123
291
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 16:30:27 -
[7] - Quote
You know, there is a shampoo for bugs, it also stops the itching pretty quickly... |
Commander IceQ
Ascendance Goonswarm Federation
20
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 16:33:00 -
[8] - Quote
Maybe now non-coders will understand that finding a bug is sometimes a VERY challenging thing. Especially on something that is not easily re-producible.
I have seen this bug on my Drone window a few times, and I have also seen the "CCP is not even trying to fix it" complaints on forums and other places. Maybe this will make them realise that sometimes fixes are not easy or obvious.
I would LOVE to see the source for this game... can the devs maybe give a rough estimate on the amount of lines of code? (that would be interesting)
*chest salute* respect guys. Keep up the good work. :)
PS can you please add an "spontaneous feature" that adds 1 000 bill to all Caldari born pilots?
ehehehe
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
|
Sentient Blade
Crisis Atmosphere Coalition of the Unfortunate
1800
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 16:35:13 -
[9] - Quote
Kicked in the teeth by pointers.... You are now truly an elite programmer.
All the same, pretty nasty.
Then again, whoever wrote the original class didn't take much care to make it easy for themselves or their future colleagues, that's for sure...
It hurts my head to see void Synchro::RemoveSleeper( Heap &sleepers, ...) where it's being passed its own class member as a reference. Out of curiosity are there other heaps of sleepers in use or was this a nasty port of some C code?
Nice job finding it. |
Katherine Hakoke
Science and Trade Institute Caldari State
0
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 16:42:55 -
[10] - Quote
This is quite possibly the only MMO I know of that is willing to get technical and actually talk about what is going on. I know this article is entirely because after all that effort with the bug finally squashed the person responsible just wants to brag to the world and be admire. Well you know what, GOOD FOR YOU! This was such an amazing find and such hard work put into it you deserve all that praise. I can't tell you how often I'm programming something and after weeks of bug testing I finally fix a bug that was getting really irritating then I want to just tell anyone at all. Unfortunately, I don't really have any technically minded friends so I cant ever share my coding war stories with anyone. But as much as I love sharing them I also love reading them so please any developers from EVE don't be scared to show off every once in a while and brag about what you just did in the back end |
|
|
CCP Snorlax
C C P C C P Alliance
1158
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 16:46:01 -
[11] - Quote
Hagika wrote:You know, there is a shampoo for bugs, it also stops the itching pretty quickly... I tried that on my laptop - I had to get a new one...
CCP Snorlax - Software Architect - Team RnB - @CCP_Snorlax - http://ccpsnorlax.blogspot.is/
|
|
|
CCP Snorlax
C C P C C P Alliance
1158
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 16:47:06 -
[12] - Quote
Sentient Blade wrote:Kicked in the teeth by pointers.... You are now truly an elite programmer.
All the same, pretty nasty.
Then again, whoever wrote the original class didn't take much care to make it easy for themselves or their future colleagues, that's for sure...
It hurts my head to see void Synchro::RemoveSleeper( Heap &sleepers, ...) where it's being passed its own class member as a reference. Out of curiosity are there other heaps of sleepers in use or was this a nasty port of some C code?
Nice job finding it. Yes, there are two kinds of sleepers.
CCP Snorlax - Software Architect - Team RnB - @CCP_Snorlax - http://ccpsnorlax.blogspot.is/
|
|
Sentient Blade
Crisis Atmosphere Coalition of the Unfortunate
1801
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 17:02:35 -
[13] - Quote
CCP Snorlax wrote:Yes, there are two kinds of sleepers.
Ones that wreck your ships and ones that wreck your code? :-) |
Nana Skalski
Taisaanat Kotei
25843
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 17:16:23 -
[14] - Quote
REJOICE! \o/
Every part of a game helps to tell a story =ƒôò
Where is Angry CONCORD guy when you need him
Osprey =ƒÜÇ
GëíGïüGëí GÖÑ
|
Amarisen Gream
Divine Demise Sherwood Hisec Industrial Technologies
317
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 17:26:57 -
[15] - Quote
Great work CCP Development
But CCP Snorlax is still my favorite <3 of them all.
"The Lord loosed upon them his fierce anger
All of his fury and rage.
He dispatched against them a band of Avenging Angels"
- The Scriptures, Book II, Apocalypse 10:1
#NPCLivesMatter
#Freetheboobs
|
Cade Windstalker
797
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 17:33:05 -
[16] - Quote
Wooooow. Massive congrats to you CCP Snorlax for that investigation and tenacity, and to CCP Karkur for writing that invaluable tasklet spawner. I do this stuff for a living myself and I can honestly see myself chasing something like this for ages and not understanding where things were going wrong (in fact my team is currently dealing with a bug that is just as infuriatingly inconsistent as this one was) so hats off to you for this fix. I know a lot of people this is going to make very very happy!
For all the non-technical folks here I'll try to summarize what was going wrong:
Imagine the main Eve process is like a bunch of guys watching a bunch of balls in a row.
Sometimes a guy picks up a ball and either puts it on a conveyor belt and it goes off to do things, or throws it out. When a ball is thrown out a new ball gets put in its place when one is available.
Except whenever a guy picks up a ball he blinks right as he grabs it. This isn't a problem 99.9% of the time, because the balls aren't moving and he knows where the ball he's about to grab is.
Except sometimes, when an Eve Process Guy is about to pick up a ball and throw it out another Eve Process Guy picks it up and puts it on a conveyor belt to go do things.
If there's another ball available right then then a third Eve Process Guy may put that ball in the empty slot.
Then our Original Eve Process Guy, who is blinking and therefore can't see what he's grabbing, will grab the ball and throw it out.
That ball he threw out is your drone UI updates, or your HP update, or your module overheat updater.
CCP Snorlax patched the Eve Process Guys so they don't blink when grabbing balls anymore. |
Amarisen Gream
Divine Demise Sherwood Hisec Industrial Technologies
317
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 17:52:44 -
[17] - Quote
Cade Windstalker wrote:Wooooow. Massive congrats to you CCP Snorlax for that investigation and tenacity, and to CCP Karkur for writing that invaluable tasklet spawner. I do this stuff for a living myself and I can honestly see myself chasing something like this for ages and not understanding where things were going wrong (in fact my team is currently dealing with a bug that is just as infuriatingly inconsistent as this one was) so hats off to you for this fix. I know a lot of people this is going to make very very happy!
For all the non-technical folks here I'll try to summarize what was going wrong:
Imagine the main Eve process is like a bunch of guys watching a bunch of balls in a row.
Sometimes a guy picks up a ball and either puts it on a conveyor belt and it goes off to do things, or throws it out. When a ball is thrown out a new ball gets put in its place when one is available.
Except whenever a guy picks up a ball he blinks right as he grabs it. This isn't a problem 99.9% of the time, because the balls aren't moving and he knows where the ball he's about to grab is.
Except sometimes, when an Eve Process Guy is about to pick up a ball and throw it out another Eve Process Guy picks it up and puts it on a conveyor belt to go do things.
If there's another ball available right then then a third Eve Process Guy may put that ball in the empty slot.
Then our Original Eve Process Guy, who is blinking and therefore can't see what he's grabbing, will grab the ball and throw it out.
That ball he threw out is your drone UI updates, or your HP update, or your module overheat updater.
CCP Snorlax patched the Eve Process Guys so they don't blink when grabbing balls anymore.
I am sure most of us don't like guys (blindly) grabbing our balls, but to each their own.
Sorry. Me is bad. But the example called for it.
"The Lord loosed upon them his fierce anger
All of his fury and rage.
He dispatched against them a band of Avenging Angels"
- The Scriptures, Book II, Apocalypse 10:1
#NPCLivesMatter
#Freetheboobs
|
Sylvia Kildare
Center for Advanced Studies Gallente Federation
51
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 18:04:07 -
[18] - Quote
Soldarius wrote:I have seen this bug quite a few times. It seems most evident when the speed indicator stops updating. But shields, armor, or heat indicators not updating in the middle of a fight can get you killed and you would never even realize it. I know this has happened to me.
Glad to see such an insidious bug crushed beneath the boot heels of progress.
Hi Squizz.
Yeah, I almost always have the capacitor display disappears, the speedometer jams, or the drone window hangs errors... and once or twice I've had erroneous heat meter issues... once it was showing overheat levels of like -1,xxx,xxx,xxx% and the red bar was past the 100% mark.... whee... but yeah, mostly capacitor and speedometer.
Never had the shield/armor/hull displays freeze on me, and I am glad of it. |
Kolmogorow
Freedom Resources
347
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 18:20:14 -
[19] - Quote
Thanks for sharing this! I didn't understand a lot of the details but what catched me at the end was that this bug might also have been the issue of "the overview not updating". That one I know well, as long as I play, which is long. Over the years I sometimes thought, this bug is annoying, why don't they care? I understand better now, it's not about ignoring a bug, but finding a very deep and hidden bug that is difficult to reproduce and to analyze in a complex code base. Software development is a human task, and it's not bad to sometimes show failure and success in the struggle against the single byte that doesn't do what you want it to do.
|
RaVenC
Kriegsmarinewerft Goonswarm Federation
6
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 18:30:34 -
[20] - Quote
Quote:99 little bugs in the code. 99 little bugs. Take one down, patch it around.
117 little bugs in the code ...
Great story, enjoyed reading it :) |
|
Alexander Bor
Polaris Global
4
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 18:40:50 -
[21] - Quote
Nice job CCP and good thing of CCP Snorlax to share some details of the way EVE goes through creation. |
Hvitulf
EVE University Ivy League
0
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 18:42:50 -
[22] - Quote
Had seen this bug happen countless times, mostly when I was in my orca when I would call/recall combat drones swapping between combat and salvage drones. I've bug reported it and thought maybe it was never going to get fixed. Great find on this sneaky little bug! |
Stragak
34
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 19:52:47 -
[23] - Quote
OMG AMAZING!!! I love that you guys were able to track down this bug down. And made reference to that the other bugs might be based on the same thing!!!! Best of luck in bug hunting!
"Oh look, the cat is sitting in the litter box and pooping over the side again" every time we go through these "rough patches".
In good humor, and slight annoyance,
Boiglio -á-áhttps://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=238130&p=82
|
Gareth deKunnis
Systems High Guard Tactical Narcotics Team
0
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 20:13:56 -
[24] - Quote
Well done! |
Elegbara
White Wolf Enterprises Harmonious Ascent
656
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 20:34:52 -
[25] - Quote
Fascinating read.
Also I've actually tried to read the code and there's definitely something wrong in the Synchro::Tick snippet. The for loop seems corrupted.
Open your eyes. And awaken.
|
Magnus Coleus
Republic Military School Minmatar Republic
13
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 20:57:58 -
[26] - Quote
Interesting, but with the weird punctuation (or lack thereof) and confusion between "it's" and "its", some parts of the explanation are as hard to follow as the original code.
|
Cade Windstalker
801
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 21:09:25 -
[27] - Quote
Magnus Coleus wrote:Interesting, but with the weird punctuation (or lack thereof) and confusion between "it's" and "its", some parts of the explanation are as hard to follow as the original code.
If you'd just been staring at python code for however many weeks this took you'd probably punctuate like that too |
FearlessLittleToaster
GoonWaffe Goonswarm Federation
177
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 21:15:37 -
[28] - Quote
I'm a long way from being a technical person and I still enjoyed this. You made it just understandable enough that even somebody who only grasps the outlines of coding could follow. Well done for that.
I do have a request. If you find other bugs that stem from this append them to this dev-blog. I'd love to read how many other things it screwed up through the game. |
Zathus Alexander
DARKNIGHT INDUSTRIES Integritas Constans
0
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 21:20:45 -
[29] - Quote
Awesome job team! I used this as an example today when my sales team complained about a bug we found in some code... They assume debugging is like proofing copy, like you are supposed to be able to simply read the code and detect flaws in the logic.
It was nice to point at a large company with multiple developers having similar issues, thanks for the transparency.
|
Lothar Mandrake
Min Wei Corporation
42
|
Posted - 2017.02.15 21:29:48 -
[30] - Quote
CCP Snorlax - Beautiful job on finding and rewriting the code.
That was a needle in the haystack as the original looks messy but would never trigger as a problem (at least to me).
I hope CCP realizes and appreciates your dedication and expertise in hunting this ghost down and rewriting it. Not many programmers would have had the patience that you did. Well done!
P.S. If you ever need a job, just let me know.......... :-)
-
|
|
|
|
|
Pages: [1] 2 3 :: one page |
First page | Previous page | Next page | Last page |