Frequent intermittent hangs

[kjetil02]

Two crashes today, both related to the Find feature. I'm uploading the first crash report, but it seems that the second is too big as it is over 100 KiB. Could I send it to you, or is there another way?

[kjetil02]

Today's third crash just happened. I don't know what's happening.

Code: Select all

Process:         Nisus Writer Pro [1125]
Path:            /Applications/Skriveprogrammer/Nisus Writer Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/Nisus Writer Pro
Identifier:      com.nisus.NisusWriter
Version:         v1.4.1 (0304.0104.01)
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [102]

Date/Time:       2011-04-05 16:52:43.562 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.6.7 (10J869)
Report Version:  6

Interval Since Last Report:          26751 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           2
Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  251371 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   2
Anonymous UUID:                      779B3DE3-8BA5-47AE-BA46-4B091E1870A3

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Thread 0 Crashed:  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   com.apple.CoreFoundation      	0x94e4ef4a _CFArrayReplaceValues + 2682
1   com.apple.Foundation          	0x93b733af -[NSCFArray insertObject:atIndex:] + 192
2   com.apple.Foundation          	0x93b732e7 -[NSCFArray addObject:] + 68
3   com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x00283e4c -[NTSmartMarker markersInRange:smartObjectRange:ranges:] + 408 (NTSmartMarker.m:236)
4   com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x00291379 NTVisitCommentsOrHistories + 231 (NTTextStorage-Comments.m:98)
5   com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x0028563f -[NTCommentTextStorage adjacentDisjointContentWithDirection:] + 349 (NTCommentTextStorage.m:157)
6   com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x0029c891 NTLogicalAdjacentContent + 291 (NTContentVisitor.m:80)
7   com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x0029ce7f -[NTLogicalContentVisitor getAdjacentTextStorage:range:] + 259 (NTContentVisitor.m:178)
8   com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x0029c680 -[NTNotifyingContentVisitor getAdjacentTextStorage:range:] + 64 (NTContentVisitor.m:334)
9   com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x0029cb56 _NTContentVistitor_VisitCommentContent + 155 (NTContentVisitor.m:448)
10  com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x0029d5c0 NTContentVisitor_Visit + 1006 (NTContentVisitor.m:476)
11  com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x0028e555 -[NTCommentTextView selectAll:] + 230 (NTCommentTextView.m:114)
12  com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x00153139 -[NTTextView performSelector:withObject:] + 699 (NTTextView.m:615)
13  com.apple.AppKit              	0x93f78c46 -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:] + 112
14  com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x001cb162 -[NTApplication sendAction:to:from:] + 67 (NTApplication.m:98)
15  com.apple.AppKit              	0x93f78af9 -[NSMenuItem _corePerformAction] + 435
16  com.apple.AppKit              	0x93f787eb -[NSCarbonMenuImpl performActionWithHighlightingForItemAtIndex:] + 174
17  com.apple.AppKit              	0x93f786da -[NSMenu performActionForItemAtIndex:] + 65
18  com.nisus.NisusBase           	0x30029250 -[NSMenuItem(NisusAdditions) dispatchActionAsIfChosenByUser] + 328 (NSMenuItem-NisusAdditions.m:334)
19  com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x001cbdc9 -[NTApplication _updateMultikeyShortcutWithKeyEvent:] + 842 (NTApplication.m:300)
20  com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x001cb6dc -[NTApplication sendEvent:] + 139 (NTApplication.m:340)
21  com.apple.AppKit              	0x93efc2a7 -[NSApplication run] + 917
22  com.apple.AppKit              	0x93ef42d9 NSApplicationMain + 574
23  com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x000026d6 _start + 228 (crt.c:272)
24  com.nisus.NisusWriter         	0x000025f1 start + 41

[kjetil02]

New crash. This is getting frustrating.

[kjetil02]

I was desperate and contacted Support in addition to airing my frustration here, and Martin found out what the problem was and promised to fix it in a later update. It had to do with the combination of comments and footnotes. Apparently, they shouldn't be combined, as for now. He also provided me with a fully functional workaround (move the comment), so now I'm working happily again.

[martin]

Thanks for posting an update here! One clarification:

It had to do with the combination of comments and footnotes. Apparently, they shouldn't be combined, as for now.

It's not that they shouldn't be used together at all. To trigger the hang both of the following criteria must be met:

1. A comment must be applied to some document text which includes a footnote reference (ie: the footnote reference is inside the marked text).
2. That same footnote whose reference was marked must have another comment applied inside the actual footnote text (ie: in the footnote text area).

It's not a highly unlikely situation, but it's still not a blanket recommendation for not combining comments and footnotes, though certainly that would avoid the problem.

[mwdiers]

kjetil02, you are not alone. I regularly experience this problem.

It always seems to happen when I am selecting text. Suddenly the program will freeze up. However, in my case it doesn't freeze up completely. No beachball. But the interface is unresponsive. I try to click, and i get highlights instead. I click and click and click, and nothing works, and I cannot type, until suddenly, sometimes as long as 30 seconds later, it's like the log jam breaks free, and all of the sudden everything happens at once. Blocks of text move, or are deleted, etc., and I have to hit Undo several times to correct the damage that.

Very frustrating.

This has nothing to do with comments and footnotes in my case. It never happens in the middle of typing. It always happens when I am selecting text, or when I am clicking in text to change where I am typing, and then, even if I did not hold down shift, it's as if shift is held down. Text is getting selected whether I want it to be or not. I will try to keep Activity Monitor open, with Nisus selected, so that I can grab samples the next time it occurs.

[xiamenese]

kjetil02, you are not alone. I regularly experience this problem.

It always seems to happen when I am selecting text. Suddenly the program will freeze up. However, in my case it doesn't freeze up completely. No beachball. But the interface is unresponsive. I try to click, and i get highlights instead. I click and click and click, and nothing works, and I cannot type, until suddenly, sometimes as long as 30 seconds later, it's like the log jam breaks free, and all of the sudden everything happens at once. Blocks of text move, or are deleted, etc., and I have to hit Undo several times to correct the damage that.

Very frustrating.

This has nothing to do with comments and footnotes in my case. It never happens in the middle of typing. It always happens when I am selecting text, or when I am clicking in text to change where I am typing, and then, even if I did not hold down shift, it's as if shift is held down. Text is getting selected whether I want it to be or not. I will try to keep Activity Monitor open, with Nisus selected, so that I can grab samples the next time it occurs.

This to me sounds like a problem that I and another user had while using Scrivener, not Nisus. It hasn't happened since, and I suspected at the time that it was due to something happening with another application, which I've since disabled: SpiderOak (DropBox type cloud repository; most serious contender as it followed an update to that); DevonThink Pro (again updated immediately before the programme) and LaunchBar. I've been too busy since to pursue it further, but hope to have time to do so shortly.

Mark