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Firebug Metamorphosis

blog.getfirebug.com

71–79 of 79 posts

Re: Firebug Metamorphosis

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one click node editing Yes the Webkit DOM inspector lacks that. > css editing It does have that on the other hand. > the fact that it live updates the DOM as it is changed via any JS running on the page My DOM inspector does seem to do that as well, though it doesn't highlight the altered subtrees the way Firebug does. > DOM/JS object inspection Has been in for a long time, though it could be missing some bells and…

> It does have that on the other hand. I know, but CSS editing is easier with Firebug. > My DOM inspector does seem to do that as well, though it doesn't highlight the altered subtrees the way Firebug does. Not nearly the in same way a Firebug does it, I find it very useful for the amount of DOM manipulation I do with JS. > Has been in for a long time, though it could be missing some bells and whistles. Again it's th…

> Again it's the "bells and whistles" that really make the difference for me some of the time.

Since you haven't described which bells and whistles you think are missing, I can't exactly agree with your position.

Re: Firebug Metamorphosis

#72
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how is that different from a firebug/webkit inspector javascript console if you don't mind me asking? I'm not really familiar with ipython.

The main difference is the ability to interact with objects in the scope of the breakpoint. The console is always in window scope and I want to interact with local variables within a certain function.

If I don't misunderstand you, you can do this in Firebug. Open one of the scripts in the Script panel, click on the left hand side of any row to set a breakpoint. Execution will break there, and you can inspect the call stack, local scope and everything.

It's the same in Chrome.

Re: Firebug Metamorphosis

#73
post #57

Has someone looked at the Web Console features ? https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Using_the_Web_Console It is just a simple console like Firebug Lite. Even the site says "The Web Console won't replace more advanced debugging tools like Firebug", so why is the Firebug team so worried about it? Firebug is a great tool for Mozilla browsers and I feel that considering porting Firebug to other browsers could be a difficul…

The Firebug team is worried because Mozilla have been passive-aggressively antagonistic towards them for a long time. Mozilla heavily promoted their abjectly useless "Web Developer Toolbar" extension for years, even bundling it with the browser by default. They also have not been shy about breaking Firebug with every major release, basically not taking it seriously at all. Now they've started down the usual embrace-e…

Things are almost always more complex than they appear.

Developer tooling is an important area, and we want to see some great tools that make sense for a broad audience to be shipped with Firefox out of the box.

What those tools look like and how they're built are some big questions that we're working on answering, and we're starting to answer them:

http://mozilla.github.com/devtools/next.html

I've been manager of Developer Tools at Mozilla for 3 months, and I can't really comment on how things were before that. What I can say is that right now Mozilla employs someone full time to work on Firebug. Firefox 4 beta 7 has been held up in part to fix some things that have broken Firebug. We do care about Firebug.

If you follow the link I just posted (which I should note is a draft that will likely get some revisions soon), you'll see that I'm keen on us building new APIs that make all sorts of developer tools, including Firebug, easier to write and more stable.

I am not worried about "AwesomeBug". Firebug is already an awesome open source project, and they're free to take the project in whatever directions they wish. I am worried about Firefox having the best developer tools available anywhere (via built-in product features and add-ons).

Re: Firebug Metamorphosis

#74
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Firefox takes up less vertical real estate than Chrome. I use Tiny Menu, customize the toolbars to put everything into the menu bar, and use Tree-Style Tabs to show the tabs vertically along the right side. The best option I have at work is Chrome, and having the tabs along the top is much less usable compared to Tree-Style Tabs.

It's subjective. I tried and hated tree style tabs. I prefer Chrome these days but Firefox and Safari are still up there, and also fast[1]. It's just nice to have a variety of good browsers to choose from. [1] http://arewefastyet.com (doesn't say "no" anymore)

I didn't say Tree Style tabs were better, only more usable (for me). I can have 30 tabs open and see a pretty wide portion of the page title. I sacrifice horizontal real estate (which is often wasted) for vertical real estate. I can understand not liking tree style tabs for various reasons, but saying that their improved usability is subjective is a bit of a stretch.

Re: Firebug Metamorphosis

#75

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Personally I browse in Chrome, but the second I start debugging JS/AJAX i'll open Firefox and use that. It's 10x slower, it has Memory leaks up the wazoo, but firebug blows chrome's debugger out of the water.

FF must be optimized for Linux or something, b/c on my Ubuntu 10.04 workstation it runs roughly the same as Chrome and Chromium do, in fact it's even more stable for me with tons of tabs open (though I haven't used Chrome in several months so maybe that's changed?).

The rate of improvement in Chrome, particularly in snappiness, is very high. I'd recommend you try it at least every 6 months. It is noticeably snappier on Ubuntu than Firefox for me, especially when switching tabs.

Re: Firebug Metamorphosis

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It does have that on the other hand. I know, but CSS editing is easier with Firebug. > My DOM inspector does seem to do that as well, though it doesn't highlight the altered subtrees the way Firebug does. Not nearly the in same way a Firebug does it, I find it very useful for the amount of DOM manipulation I do with JS. > Has been in for a long time, though it could be missing some bells and whistles. Again it's th…

> Again it's the "bells and whistles" that really make the difference for me some of the time. Since you haven't described which bells and whistles you think are missing, I can't exactly agree with your position.

I'm not sure how anyone would be convinced that I find I can work faster with Firebug than other developer tools just by listing a bunch of features. shrug

Re: Firebug Metamorphosis

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FF must be optimized for Linux or something, b/c on my Ubuntu 10.04 workstation it runs roughly the same as Chrome and Chromium do, in fact it's even more stable for me with tons of tabs open (though I haven't used Chrome in several months so maybe that's changed?).

The rate of improvement in Chrome, particularly in snappiness, is very high. I'd recommend you try it at least every 6 months. It is noticeably snappier on Ubuntu than Firefox for me, especially when switching tabs.

I did, I used Chrome and Chromium since it came out, until I discovered Vimperator a few months ago. Something about that plugin made FF a brand new browser that's just a joy to use, snappy enough that I don't notice the difference b/t it and Chrome/ium anymore, even tab switching, and even more stable with lots of tabs open (like ~45).

Re: Firebug Metamorphosis

#78
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's subjective. I tried and hated tree style tabs. I prefer Chrome these days but Firefox and Safari are still up there, and also fast[1]. It's just nice to have a variety of good browsers to choose from. [1] http://arewefastyet.com (doesn't say "no" anymore)

I didn't say Tree Style tabs were better, only more usable (for me). I can have 30 tabs open and see a pretty wide portion of the page title. I sacrifice horizontal real estate (which is often wasted) for vertical real estate. I can understand not liking tree style tabs for various reasons, but saying that their improved usability is subjective is a bit of a stretch.

If someone only ever has 3 tabs open then tree-style is a waste of space. How is it not subjective? It depends entirely on the user's browsing habits.

Re: Firebug Metamorphosis

#79
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've pretty happily switched to Chrome, which seems to do everything I used to ask Firebug to do. Although honestly I no longer use Firebug because I no longer use Firefox, and I no longer use Firefox because it takes up an obscene amount of vertical real estate compared to Chrome.

Chrome is also my primary browser, but I wanted to point out a discovery I made today: The Chromifox Extreme[1] Firefox theme in combination with its bundled helper extension completely negates the vertical pixel space waste in Firefox vs. Chrome, at least in Mac OS. I'm actually using the carbon variant[2] in combination with the Omnibar extension[3] to combine the URL and search bars. [1] https://addons.mozilla.org…

I just installed all three. Real-estate problem solved for me
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