Google Docs Crash: Math Bug in Chrome Caused Bold Text Disaster
Summary
A perplexing Google Docs crash caused by a Math.abs() bug in Chrome's V8 engine that returned negative values for negative inputs, affecting only Chrome users when bolding/unbolding large text, was resolved with a temporary fix until the affected Chrome version usage declined.
Key Points
- A fatal error in Google Docs caused the application to crash when bolding and unbolding large bodies of text, affecting only Chrome users.
- After two days of debugging, the issue was traced to a regression in the V8 JavaScript engine that caused Math.abs() to return negative values for negative inputs in a specific Chrome version.
- The temporary fix was to add a browser check and manually implement the Math.abs() functionality until the affected Chrome version usage dropped low enough.