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I can't seem to make the switch away from Chromium devtools. I don't know whether it's because I am habituated to the Chromium ones or whether there is somethin

I can't seem to make the switch away from Chromium devtools. I don't know whether it's because I am habituated to the Chromium ones or whether there is something klunky about the Firefox devtools that I can't put my finger on.

me_bx 7y ago
I guess it's a question of habit. I have the same problem in the opposite directions: the interface of Chromium developer console is unfriendly to me, I never manage to get comfortable with it...
- lol768 7y ago
  >I have the same problem in the opposite directions Me too, as one example: Chrome had no way to edit/re-send AJAX requests for the longest time
tenryuu 7y ago
meanwhile I'm the exact opposite. I've been using the firefox dev tools too much that using chrome on someone else's machine is something I feel like I have to put up with. That's not me saying Firefox's tools are actually better though, there's still a number of weird quirks or features that could be lacking, while also having features I can't find in chrome that I also take for granted
bleuarff 7y ago
Each has their pros and cons. My favorite features in FF devtools which are missing from Chrome are CSS diff and the advanced filtering in the network panel. Chrome filtering only works on hosts, while FF can filter in query strings and other sections of a request.
- jefftk 7y ago
  I often use network filtering in Chrome devtools to find requests by query string. If you start typing into the search box it matches it against the whole request including url parameters.
  - bleuarff 7y ago
    You're right, that works. Either that landed recently, or I'm confusing with another filtering feature that Chrome is missing.
philliphaydon 7y ago
Other than the web socket support in Chrome, the FF dev tools are a billion times better than Chrome now. I cannot work without the css layout overlays from FF dev tools. Makes working with grid layouts insanely easy.
- icemelt8 7y ago
  how many production websites you work on use Grids? just curious.
  - philliphaydon 7y ago
    Only for internal apps and personal stuff. I don’t really work on client facing stuff.
- raugustinus 7y ago
  While I mostly agree, I do switch to Chrome every once in a while when the javascript stacktrace in FFdev is a bit unclear. Chrome usually seems to be a bit better. But I always switch right back to FF.
  - tester346 7y ago
    Debugging fancy JS frameworks in firefox (for me, unexperienced js user) is more painful than in chrome, but debugging js in webbrowser is pain anyway
    - eitland 7y ago
      In Angular (which I like) I have found that there is a bug in error logging that only occurs on Firefox. So every time I stumble upon that I'll open Chromium, find the stack trace and go back.
- Vinnl 7y ago
  I think they're almost done with the first iteration of WebSocket support in the Firefox DevTools. Might even already be in Developer Edition: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=885508 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=885508
LordN00b 7y ago
I miss ctrl-g as go to line. Is it possible to remap Firefox keyboard commands?
- cmcaine 7y ago
  To my knowledge, no. They said they were working on it ages ago when they introduced the commands API for webextensions, but I don't think it is high on their priority queue.
pluma 7y ago
Having recently switched to Edge Dev after having used Firefox for roughly a year (and Chrome before that), I'd say Firefox devtools' strongest point are the style editing stuff. Somehow Firefox devtools feel a bit clunkier when working on JS projects but they offer a lot of neat gimmicks if you dig into the depths of CSS. I also find the guidelines when highlighting an element more helpful than in Chromium for aligning elements on the page. Personally I don't get to use grid layouts as my code has to work in IE11 (I gave autoprefixer a try but in the end it was no significant improvement over flexbox because of all the caveats and limitations). If you do, I'd imagine Firefox devtools would be a gamechanger for you. I find myself occasionally switching back to Firefox for CSS work, then going back to Edge Dev for everything else.
- The_rationalist 7y ago
  What percentage of your users are on IE11? Did you measure if there's at least one user on IE11?
  - pluma 7y ago
    Nearly 100%. Welcome to German enterprise intranets. The only good thing is that when the new Edge enters general availability, we can likely get rid of 100% of our IE11 users for good.
    - The_rationalist 7y ago
      Having to fight with IE11.. You are one of the heroes of modern times ^^
ozim 7y ago
I tried FF dev edition with Angular, it was getting randomly slow. Weird issues popping while debuging typescript code. In the end I have to use Chrome for my work, even though I would like to drop Chrome personaly. That said, I sometimes have to debug Angular applications on IE11 which is worst nightmare...
- ktpsns 7y ago
  I had similar experiences with a Vuejs application where I rendered thousands of "reactive" elements. The Chromium JS engine had substantially better performance then the Firefox JS engine. However, to be fair, this is a strong sign that as a developer, we are doing something wrong. If a JS application feels slow on an average browser in an average computer, it will feel slow on all slower computers. The usability will be crap. In this particular example, the frameworks are not suitable for such a large number of "reactive" elements.
- angrygoat 7y ago
  I use Firefox developer edition as my main browser, and there does seem to be some issue with Angular sites. admin.google.com is particularly bad – but so bad it makes me wonder if they only test in Chrome.
  - eitland 7y ago
    Error logging used to be broken in Firefox at least until last year. I'm not working in frontend at moment and I never got around to submitting a bug (it always happened while at work) but my opinion was that there was a bug somewhere in there where they used a Chromium only API. And yes, I too have wondered if they only test in Chrome.
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  If its having performance issues on Firefox.... Leaving Firefox and making it work on Chrome is part of the problem with the browser wars... I also would consider that a bug in either that framework or your code or both. I rather websites worked the same in all browsers otherwise why bother with JS frameworks that are to be compiled for all browsers.
zelly 7y ago
Firefox (hardened config) for browsing. Chromium for web dev.
The_rationalist 7y ago
I use Firefox devtools only when I need special features: Mostly: Grid editor CSS Shape editor
Siecje 7y ago
In Chromium in the Network tab how do you see the request? In Firefox you can edit and resend a request and see it or modify it and send it again.
mdip 7y ago
As others have pointed out, it may be worth looking into whether or not your reasons for using Chromium for the devtools are simply habit. Speaking for myself, I'm in the other camp. I never really ditched Firefox for Chrome except for a brief period[0]. I returned to Firefox back when it was still called "Firefox (Not Responding)". Other than the renaming (/s), it -- generally -- flies. The devtools do what I need them to do, however, I used to hop back and forth from Chromium to FF a lot more. So I'll be re-evaluating things, again, myself -- just in the other direction. :) [0] I used Chrome for about two years after its release because Firefox wouldn't work with an internal application. It was just easier to use a single browser.
- rkagerer 7y ago
  I tried for the last several weeks to switch to Firefox ("normal" edition) after Google introduced new mechanics pushing account login, but ultimately, and disappointingly, found myself drifting back to Chrome. Main reasons were speed (Firefox opened slightly slower, and there seemed to feel like subtly more per-character latency typing in URL's) and minor anti-native behavior (the default-disabled-until-you-move-your-mouse Save button was particularly annoying, even though I understand the rationale). I got the dreaded "Firefox process is already running" dialog a few times and had to close all my windows (ugh). I really missed Session Buddy; tried alternatives like Tree Style Tab but they weren't as clean. Finally, one or two pages didn't render / operate properly (guessing due to non-cross-compatible JavaScript statement buried somewhere in them). Unfortunately I don't have the time to create good step-by-step reproducibles and log bugs. I know some of this can be tweaked out via preference settings. I even spent some time tailoring my userChrome.css per suggestions here. But just couldn't get everything to work quite perfect. FF will have to spend some more time as my secondary browser, may give it a shot again in another year or so or next time Google pedals something stupid. Will try out the new devtools when I'm working on a page, maybe that'll be the hook for another attempt.
- avshyz 7y ago
  >it may be worth looking into whether or not your reasons for using Chromium for the devtools are simply habit After deciding that life's too short and that I really should give it a try - I've found out that source maps doesn't work on Firefox's dev tools. Back to chrome.
byte1918 7y ago
Does anyone know why Chromium hasn't fixed this supposedly old regression bug where opening large minified js file in the source tab hangs the whole tab/browser, sometimes for more than 10 seconds even on a fast machine. Can't this be done asynchronously or at least give the user a way to cancel loading it? If you open a large file and then close developer tools, reload the page and open developer tools again, it will try to reopen the last opened file again, blocking chrome for another 10 seconds. Very annoying.
deskamess 7y ago
I generally start with Firefox but recently needed to switch to Chrome for JS debugging. There were errors and they simply did not show in the FF console, and whole script tags of inline/embedded javascript was not to be found anywhere I spent 20-30 minutes mucking around looking here and there, and finally switched to Chrome and was done in a few minutes.

me_bx 7y ago

I guess it's a question of habit. I have the same problem in the opposite directions: the interface of Chromium developer console is unfriendly to me, I never manage to get comfortable with it...

lol768 7y ago
>I have the same problem in the opposite directions Me too, as one example: Chrome had no way to edit/re-send AJAX requests for the longest time

tenryuu 7y ago

meanwhile I'm the exact opposite. I've been using the firefox dev tools too much that using chrome on someone else's machine is something I feel like I have to put up with. That's not me saying Firefox's tools are actually better though, there's still a number of weird quirks or features that could be lacking, while also having features I can't find in chrome that I also take for granted

bleuarff 7y ago

Each has their pros and cons. My favorite features in FF devtools which are missing from Chrome are CSS diff and the advanced filtering in the network panel. Chrome filtering only works on hosts, while FF can filter in query strings and other sections of a request.

jefftk 7y ago
I often use network filtering in Chrome devtools to find requests by query string. If you start typing into the search box it matches it against the whole request including url parameters.
- bleuarff 7y ago
  You're right, that works. Either that landed recently, or I'm confusing with another filtering feature that Chrome is missing.

philliphaydon 7y ago

Other than the web socket support in Chrome, the FF dev tools are a billion times better than Chrome now. I cannot work without the css layout overlays from FF dev tools. Makes working with grid layouts insanely easy.

icemelt8 7y ago
how many production websites you work on use Grids? just curious.
- philliphaydon 7y ago
  Only for internal apps and personal stuff. I don’t really work on client facing stuff.
raugustinus 7y ago
While I mostly agree, I do switch to Chrome every once in a while when the javascript stacktrace in FFdev is a bit unclear. Chrome usually seems to be a bit better. But I always switch right back to FF.
- tester346 7y ago
  Debugging fancy JS frameworks in firefox (for me, unexperienced js user) is more painful than in chrome, but debugging js in webbrowser is pain anyway
  - eitland 7y ago
    In Angular (which I like) I have found that there is a bug in error logging that only occurs on Firefox. So every time I stumble upon that I'll open Chromium, find the stack trace and go back.
Vinnl 7y ago
I think they're almost done with the first iteration of WebSocket support in the Firefox DevTools. Might even already be in Developer Edition: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=885508 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=885508

LordN00b 7y ago

I miss ctrl-g as go to line. Is it possible to remap Firefox keyboard commands?

cmcaine 7y ago
To my knowledge, no. They said they were working on it ages ago when they introduced the commands API for webextensions, but I don't think it is high on their priority queue.

pluma 7y ago

Having recently switched to Edge Dev after having used Firefox for roughly a year (and Chrome before that), I'd say Firefox devtools' strongest point are the style editing stuff. Somehow Firefox devtools feel a bit clunkier when working on JS projects but they offer a lot of neat gimmicks if you dig into the depths of CSS. I also find the guidelines when highlighting an element more helpful than in Chromium for aligning elements on the page. Personally I don't get to use grid layouts as my code has to work in IE11 (I gave autoprefixer a try but in the end it was no significant improvement over flexbox because of all the caveats and limitations). If you do, I'd imagine Firefox devtools would be a gamechanger for you. I find myself occasionally switching back to Firefox for CSS work, then going back to Edge Dev for everything else.

The_rationalist 7y ago
What percentage of your users are on IE11? Did you measure if there's at least one user on IE11?
- pluma 7y ago
  Nearly 100%. Welcome to German enterprise intranets. The only good thing is that when the new Edge enters general availability, we can likely get rid of 100% of our IE11 users for good.
  - The_rationalist 7y ago
    Having to fight with IE11.. You are one of the heroes of modern times ^^

ozim 7y ago

I tried FF dev edition with Angular, it was getting randomly slow. Weird issues popping while debuging typescript code. In the end I have to use Chrome for my work, even though I would like to drop Chrome personaly. That said, I sometimes have to debug Angular applications on IE11 which is worst nightmare...

ktpsns 7y ago
I had similar experiences with a Vuejs application where I rendered thousands of "reactive" elements. The Chromium JS engine had substantially better performance then the Firefox JS engine. However, to be fair, this is a strong sign that as a developer, we are doing something wrong. If a JS application feels slow on an average browser in an average computer, it will feel slow on all slower computers. The usability will be crap. In this particular example, the frameworks are not suitable for such a large number of "reactive" elements.
angrygoat 7y ago
I use Firefox developer edition as my main browser, and there does seem to be some issue with Angular sites. admin.google.com is particularly bad – but so bad it makes me wonder if they only test in Chrome.
- eitland 7y ago
  Error logging used to be broken in Firefox at least until last year. I'm not working in frontend at moment and I never got around to submitting a bug (it always happened while at work) but my opinion was that there was a bug somewhere in there where they used a Chromium only API. And yes, I too have wondered if they only test in Chrome.
giancarlostoro 7y ago
If its having performance issues on Firefox.... Leaving Firefox and making it work on Chrome is part of the problem with the browser wars... I also would consider that a bug in either that framework or your code or both. I rather websites worked the same in all browsers otherwise why bother with JS frameworks that are to be compiled for all browsers.

zelly 7y ago

Firefox (hardened config) for browsing. Chromium for web dev.

The_rationalist 7y ago

I use Firefox devtools only when I need special features: Mostly: Grid editor CSS Shape editor

Siecje 7y ago

In Chromium in the Network tab how do you see the request? In Firefox you can edit and resend a request and see it or modify it and send it again.

mdip 7y ago

As others have pointed out, it may be worth looking into whether or not your reasons for using Chromium for the devtools are simply habit. Speaking for myself, I'm in the other camp. I never really ditched Firefox for Chrome except for a brief period[0]. I returned to Firefox back when it was still called "Firefox (Not Responding)". Other than the renaming (/s), it -- generally -- flies. The devtools do what I need them to do, however, I used to hop back and forth from Chromium to FF a lot more. So I'll be re-evaluating things, again, myself -- just in the other direction. :) [0] I used Chrome for about two years after its release because Firefox wouldn't work with an internal application. It was just easier to use a single browser.

rkagerer 7y ago
I tried for the last several weeks to switch to Firefox ("normal" edition) after Google introduced new mechanics pushing account login, but ultimately, and disappointingly, found myself drifting back to Chrome. Main reasons were speed (Firefox opened slightly slower, and there seemed to feel like subtly more per-character latency typing in URL's) and minor anti-native behavior (the default-disabled-until-you-move-your-mouse Save button was particularly annoying, even though I understand the rationale). I got the dreaded "Firefox process is already running" dialog a few times and had to close all my windows (ugh). I really missed Session Buddy; tried alternatives like Tree Style Tab but they weren't as clean. Finally, one or two pages didn't render / operate properly (guessing due to non-cross-compatible JavaScript statement buried somewhere in them). Unfortunately I don't have the time to create good step-by-step reproducibles and log bugs. I know some of this can be tweaked out via preference settings. I even spent some time tailoring my userChrome.css per suggestions here. But just couldn't get everything to work quite perfect. FF will have to spend some more time as my secondary browser, may give it a shot again in another year or so or next time Google pedals something stupid. Will try out the new devtools when I'm working on a page, maybe that'll be the hook for another attempt.
avshyz 7y ago
>it may be worth looking into whether or not your reasons for using Chromium for the devtools are simply habit After deciding that life's too short and that I really should give it a try - I've found out that source maps doesn't work on Firefox's dev tools. Back to chrome.

byte1918 7y ago

Does anyone know why Chromium hasn't fixed this supposedly old regression bug where opening large minified js file in the source tab hangs the whole tab/browser, sometimes for more than 10 seconds even on a fast machine. Can't this be done asynchronously or at least give the user a way to cancel loading it? If you open a large file and then close developer tools, reload the page and open developer tools again, it will try to reopen the last opened file again, blocking chrome for another 10 seconds. Very annoying.

deskamess 7y ago

I generally start with Firefox but recently needed to switch to Chrome for JS debugging. There were errors and they simply did not show in the FF console, and whole script tags of inline/embedded javascript was not to be found anywhere I spent 20-30 minutes mucking around looking here and there, and finally switched to Chrome and was done in a few minutes.