Google Docs Fatal Error: The Bizarre Math.abs() Bug
2025-03-27
The Google Docs team encountered a bizarre fatal error: in a specific Chrome version, the Math.abs() function unexpectedly became an identity function at the super-optimized level, causing the document editor to crash after extensive text manipulation. After two days of intense debugging, the team finally traced the issue to an optimization change in the V8 engine, which caused Math.abs() to return negative values under specific conditions. This was a low-probability, non-deterministic error that was ultimately resolved with a temporary fix and assistance from the V8 team. The entire process revealed the complexity and challenges of debugging large software systems.
Development
V8 engine