Using Code Snippets in Chrome Developer Tools • Hacker News Board

Re: Using Code Snippets in Chrome Developer Tools

#41

Post by wch4999 » Sat, Jul 30, 2016, 4:15 PM UTC

kyriakos wrote: post #5

In the 80s home computers shipped with a programming language as their OS (BASIC language to be precise) - today the browser dev tools are the closest equivalent. You can use them on any PC with no additional software - wished it was made more obvious so everyone could experiment with programming like those of us who got their first computer experience 25-30 years ago could do.

Seriouly, does EVERYONE need dev tools in their browsers? As a casual web-developer, I use it quite often. It is questionable for most people if they are using the dev tools in Chrome or Firefox. Not to mention when someone accidentally press F12, something scary for them will appear. Personally thining, Making dev tools as an add-on would be more appropriate.

Re: Using Code Snippets in Chrome Developer Tools

#42

Post by richardjdare » Sat, Jul 30, 2016, 4:20 PM UTC

kilon wrote: post #35

kyriakos wrote: post #5

In the 80s home computers shipped with a programming language as their OS (BASIC language to be precise) - today the browser dev tools are the closest equivalent. You can use them on any PC with no additional software - wished it was made more obvious so everyone could experiment with programming like those of us who got their first computer experience 25-30 years ago could do.

Not true , 80s OS language for home computers was 100% Assembly, z80 assembly to exact. Basic was provided as an easy to use scripting language. Modern web tools and languages and frameworks are bloated and fragmented. Actually the only thing that keeps the 80s nostalgia is modern implementations of Smalltalk if you come from Amiga , or lisp if you come from command line CP/M OS. Web Dev is a huge pile of mess and I…

I think what Kyriakos means is, the Basic environment was how you operated the machine. On my Amstrad CPC, if I wanted to see what was on a disc, I'd use the Basic command CAT. I wouldn't type "dir" or "ls" into a command line or click on a folder icon. If I wanted to run a program, I'd have to type a Basic command.

I use Chrome dev tools as a general coding environment all the time. I have a blank HTML page on my computer which loads jQuery and few other things, and I just load it up and open the dev tools. I have a bunch of snippets for generating Java boilerplate for work(!), transforming various things into JSON, etc. etc. It just sort of evolved over time into my personal coding environment. Of course I'd rather have something like the Symbolics Lisp machine:) but it's a fun little system.

Re: Using Code Snippets in Chrome Developer Tools

#43

Post by runeks » Sat, Jul 30, 2016, 7:53 PM UTC

wch4999 wrote: post #41

kyriakos wrote: post #5

In the 80s home computers shipped with a programming language as their OS (BASIC language to be precise) - today the browser dev tools are the closest equivalent. You can use them on any PC with no additional software - wished it was made more obvious so everyone could experiment with programming like those of us who got their first computer experience 25-30 years ago could do.

Seriouly, does EVERYONE need dev tools in their browsers? As a casual web-developer, I use it quite often. It is questionable for most people if they are using the dev tools in Chrome or Firefox. Not to mention when someone accidentally press F12, something scary for them will appear. Personally thining, Making dev tools as an add-on would be more appropriate.

I, for one, like being able to answer someone when they ask me "why doesn't this work?", and I fire up the console and see what happened.

Given that error handling is left completely up to the client application (the web page), I think it makes sense to include tools to see what's going on, not in the least if you suspect the application is doing something malicious (just reload and check the network log).

The browser really is a lot like its own OS, and in this context the developer tools are more analogous to strace or dmesg than gcc, I would argue.