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Uh, what makes you say web browsers offer poor debugging experiences? I'd put them about on par with Visual Studio's C# debugging, even better in some areas(Imm

by Sacho 9y ago

Uh, what makes you say web browsers offer poor debugging experiences? I'd put them about on par with Visual Studio's C# debugging, even better in some areas(Immediate Mode in VS breaks down often, the debugger craps out on some LINQ-to-X expressions, etc, whereas web browsers offer all the malleability of JS right there at the debug breakpoint).

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Chrome and Firefox devtools are very very behind in modern debug features, it’s like programming in the early 90s again! Not just that, but debugging is also extremely fragile, crashing often on small programs for no good reason. It can’t even call tostring automatically in the watch windows because JavaScript VMs have no easy way of quickly sandboxing those fine grained calls.
- Sacho 9y ago
  I'm not sure I understood the toString() issue you described here, and I don't recall encounting crashes with any particular regularity. What I do recall is having to deal with VS2017's inability to execute or watch many LINQ/lambda expressions which made certain debug sessions completely useless. The biggest issues I've had with web browser debuggers is the interaction(or lack thereof) between source maps and debugging. I don't know any of the modern debug features that the browsers are missing - could you mention some?
  - taeric 9y ago
    My guess is they are referring to Reverse Debugging[1] and similar features. Basically, being able to step backwards in the code. A feature not many realize exists already is "Restart Frame." I confess I always forget it exists in Chrome. It can get you close to "step backwards." I don't know if you can use it to redefine a function and start it over, though. (Something you can do in languages people love the debuggers of.) [1] http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/ReverseDebug http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/ReverseDebug

by Sacho 9y ago

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

Chrome and Firefox devtools are very very behind in modern debug features, it’s like programming in the early 90s again! Not just that, but debugging is also extremely fragile, crashing often on small programs for no good reason. It can’t even call tostring automatically in the watch windows because JavaScript VMs have no easy way of quickly sandboxing those fine grained calls.

Sacho 9y ago
I'm not sure I understood the toString() issue you described here, and I don't recall encounting crashes with any particular regularity. What I do recall is having to deal with VS2017's inability to execute or watch many LINQ/lambda expressions which made certain debug sessions completely useless. The biggest issues I've had with web browser debuggers is the interaction(or lack thereof) between source maps and debugging. I don't know any of the modern debug features that the browsers are missing - could you mention some?
- taeric 9y ago
  My guess is they are referring to Reverse Debugging[1] and similar features. Basically, being able to step backwards in the code. A feature not many realize exists already is "Restart Frame." I confess I always forget it exists in Chrome. It can get you close to "step backwards." I don't know if you can use it to redefine a function and start it over, though. (Something you can do in languages people love the debuggers of.) [1] http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/ReverseDebug http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/ReverseDebug