I am a web developer. Part of my job consists of writing code that will work on about 3-4 completely different browsers. Most of the difference is in the layout and styling engine. As for the JavaScript code, the code I write is targeted towards the lowest common denominator. The thing that bothers me the most is the developer tools (or lack of) the browsers offer. There is no single, unified debugger, and one must know how to use each and every debugger in order to cover all browsers. That sucks.
1.
Internet Explorer, still used by the majority, has its standalone script debugger, or Visual Studio. Being the most stable and feature-complete, it sets the standard for the others.
PROs: Stable. Rather fast. Visual studio is home.
Cons: Not extensible. For IE only. Not integrated with the Web Developer Toolbar. No auto-complete.
2.
FireFox, the choice of the new web. Your options include the Venkman debugger (which I won't discuss), and the popular FireBug (which I will). The thought of an open-source debugger is great. The FireFox architecture seems to be pretty sweet if you can just write your own debugger. It also has various add-ons like YSlow that improve it even further. The guys at Aptana even made a remote debugger, based on FireBug, which seems to me a step in the right direction. However, FireBug itself is really buggy. And slow. As a user of Firebug, I must say that I'm a little disappointed. As a developer, i know that it is not an easy thing to build and maintain. And at the end of the day - I don't like FireBug. There, I said it. I even googled a bit about 'firebug sucks', and found only this
very old entry at SitePen. Is ranting about FireBug a taboo? It sure seems like it.
PROs: Open-source. Integrated with a DOM explorer, very useful for modifying styles at runtime.
Cons: Slow, rather unstable, watches are not implemented properly.
3.
Chrome, the new kid. I use chrome myself for everyday browsing. It's feels faster than the rest, usually performs better, and feel very light. The browser itself has bugs, but I'll discuss the development tools. Or lack of those. There is a rather good debugging framework, available through ctrl+shift+L window. But it's good for debugging your Hello World application, not the full-blown IDE that I write.
PROs: I guess when the debugger will be available it'll rock. Till then:
CONs: Way too verbose and crude to work with.
4.
Safari. Well, i tried and could not figure it out - you need to install Safari, then install the latest WebKit build, then run a batch file that seems to be broken, and then fail. I guess that when Chrome will render correctly, safari will too. At least, that's what I'm counting on.
PROs: Anyone?
CONs: Couldn't figure out how to even launch this one.
Conclusion: A few weeks ago i thought about putting some time on trying to improve the chrome debugger, but it seems that the debugger is undergoing some critical changes, so i'll wait. As for FireFox and FireBug, i sure hope that the new versions will keep improving. Speed improvements and stability are always promised, and probably delivered, but it's still not what i would call production ready.
So this is my rant for today. There are more (hint: IE8, WCF), so i'll save them for later.
Go FireBuggers GO!
