4 ms·

I use it, but just don't like the devtools. Or moreso miss some things from Chrome/Edge.

by emsixteen 3y ago

wackget 3y ago
For me it's the opposite. Firefox's dev tools feel better. What things are missing?
- nicce 3y ago
  On Chromium touch screen emulation feels much better.
  - KnobbleMcKnees 3y ago
    I find them both pretty poor compared to running on emulators/simulators
- swang 3y ago
  One of the reasons I stopped using Firefox was that the columns in the devtools were unexpandable. I couldn’t see any data past what Firefox decided was enough to show. Did they fix this?
  - tredre3 3y ago
    I'm assuming you're talking about table views like the Network or Storage/Cookies tabs? You can resize columns and each cell has a tooltip that shows the full content if it's hidden.
- everybodyknows 3y ago
  What cripples FF DevTools for me is being unable to find the setting for timeout on HTTP GET, during full-stack development. If I've set a breakpoint in a debugger on my server and proceed to single-step there, FF aborts the GET request with an error. So client-side JS doesn't see the eventual result of the GET, it has to recover from the error to proceed, e.g. by a full page-reload. Chromium, last I tried it, by default sets the necessary HTTP timeout(s) to infinity if its DevTools is open. My searches of Firefox docs/wiki, StackExchange, HN Algolia for a fix have come up empty. Navigating to "about:config" and searching for "timeout" finds 27 different settings prefixed with the substring "network". Some are obviously in units of milliseconds, others perhaps whole seconds. Anyone know which one (or what combination) might incant the necessary black magic?
- square_usual 3y ago
  I really like that the Chrome profiler shows you the profile right there. Firefox insists on opening the profile in a browser tab. This is fine, but is an unnecessary context switch for me.
dylan604 3y ago
I use the FF devtools daily, and for what I'm working on, it has everything I need to help me get the things I need done. Knowing that I'm not everyone and have plenty to learn, what things are missing from the devtools for you?
- tashoecraft 3y ago
  The only issue I have (which, is happening less and less lately) is my debugger doesn't jump to the source. It hits and everything pauses, but I don't get routed to it and have to start progressing just to get it to work, which can make the debugger useless as you've gone past what you were looking at. This has happened across machines for years for me, and happens much less in chrome. But doesn't happen enough for me to switch.
- Jochim 3y ago
  I use FF and prefer the devtools. Chrome's ability to temporarily edit and save changes to JS sources through the debugger editor is fantastic though. Other than that it's mostly just improvements to what FF already has. Search could be made much more useful, especially network requests. Searching all request bodies/responses for a particular string/json/regex would be a huge step up. You can search the response of individual requests but there's a UI bug that makes it look like your filter is no longer applied when you select the next one in the list.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    >Chrome's ability to temporarily edit and save changes to JS sources through the debugger editor is fantastic though. Does this affect the live code so the change is available immediately? I once had a thought about wondering if this was possible to have the change available without refreshing
    - Jochim 3y ago
      As far as I know, you have to reload the page sadly.
markandrewj 3y ago
Give Firefox Developer Edition a try, if haven't already, and are looking for more robust development tools.
- dns_snek 3y ago
  What are the differences compared to regular Firefox?
  - markandrewj 3y ago
    Firefox Developer Edition is targeted towards developers, and contains the latest development tools available. New features also land quicker, as it is built against Firefox beta.
- frabcus 3y ago
  Looking at https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/developer/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/developer/ I'm a bit confused... Which features are just new features which will soon be in the main Firefox DevTools, and which are specific to installing the Developer Edition?
  - cpeterso 3y ago
    AFAIK, Firefox Developer Edition is currently just a repackaging of Firefox Beta and doesn’t have different devtools. It used to be a rebranding of Firefox Aurora (an alpha release channel between Firefox Nightly and Beta, now retired) with a different theme and a few different devtool setting changes.
- zdragnar 3y ago
  Maybe I was just unlucky, but the one time I tried it, it refused to launch. I'd rather not have my professional work tools be built against a beta channel when there are better alternatives.
  - markandrewj 3y ago
tgv 3y ago
Me too. I'm using FF since 3.6, and before that Camino (a derived version for the mac), and the only thing Google has done is strengthen my resolve to keep using Firefox, but I still prefer to debug on Chrome (well, Chromium). It just feels better, even though it's starting to slip and FF is improving slowly.

I use it, but just don't like the devtools. Or moreso miss some things from Chrome/Edge.

wackget 3y ago

For me it's the opposite. Firefox's dev tools feel better. What things are missing?

nicce 3y ago
On Chromium touch screen emulation feels much better.
- KnobbleMcKnees 3y ago
  I find them both pretty poor compared to running on emulators/simulators
swang 3y ago
One of the reasons I stopped using Firefox was that the columns in the devtools were unexpandable. I couldn’t see any data past what Firefox decided was enough to show. Did they fix this?
- tredre3 3y ago
  I'm assuming you're talking about table views like the Network or Storage/Cookies tabs? You can resize columns and each cell has a tooltip that shows the full content if it's hidden.
everybodyknows 3y ago
What cripples FF DevTools for me is being unable to find the setting for timeout on HTTP GET, during full-stack development. If I've set a breakpoint in a debugger on my server and proceed to single-step there, FF aborts the GET request with an error. So client-side JS doesn't see the eventual result of the GET, it has to recover from the error to proceed, e.g. by a full page-reload. Chromium, last I tried it, by default sets the necessary HTTP timeout(s) to infinity if its DevTools is open. My searches of Firefox docs/wiki, StackExchange, HN Algolia for a fix have come up empty. Navigating to "about:config" and searching for "timeout" finds 27 different settings prefixed with the substring "network". Some are obviously in units of milliseconds, others perhaps whole seconds. Anyone know which one (or what combination) might incant the necessary black magic?
square_usual 3y ago
I really like that the Chrome profiler shows you the profile right there. Firefox insists on opening the profile in a browser tab. This is fine, but is an unnecessary context switch for me.

dylan604 3y ago

I use the FF devtools daily, and for what I'm working on, it has everything I need to help me get the things I need done. Knowing that I'm not everyone and have plenty to learn, what things are missing from the devtools for you?

tashoecraft 3y ago
The only issue I have (which, is happening less and less lately) is my debugger doesn't jump to the source. It hits and everything pauses, but I don't get routed to it and have to start progressing just to get it to work, which can make the debugger useless as you've gone past what you were looking at. This has happened across machines for years for me, and happens much less in chrome. But doesn't happen enough for me to switch.
Jochim 3y ago
I use FF and prefer the devtools. Chrome's ability to temporarily edit and save changes to JS sources through the debugger editor is fantastic though. Other than that it's mostly just improvements to what FF already has. Search could be made much more useful, especially network requests. Searching all request bodies/responses for a particular string/json/regex would be a huge step up. You can search the response of individual requests but there's a UI bug that makes it look like your filter is no longer applied when you select the next one in the list.
- dylan604 3y ago
  >Chrome's ability to temporarily edit and save changes to JS sources through the debugger editor is fantastic though. Does this affect the live code so the change is available immediately? I once had a thought about wondering if this was possible to have the change available without refreshing
  - Jochim 3y ago
    As far as I know, you have to reload the page sadly.

markandrewj 3y ago

Give Firefox Developer Edition a try, if haven't already, and are looking for more robust development tools.

dns_snek 3y ago
What are the differences compared to regular Firefox?
- markandrewj 3y ago
  Firefox Developer Edition is targeted towards developers, and contains the latest development tools available. New features also land quicker, as it is built against Firefox beta.
frabcus 3y ago
Looking at https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/developer/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/developer/ I'm a bit confused... Which features are just new features which will soon be in the main Firefox DevTools, and which are specific to installing the Developer Edition?
- cpeterso 3y ago
  AFAIK, Firefox Developer Edition is currently just a repackaging of Firefox Beta and doesn’t have different devtools. It used to be a rebranding of Firefox Aurora (an alpha release channel between Firefox Nightly and Beta, now retired) with a different theme and a few different devtool setting changes.
zdragnar 3y ago
Maybe I was just unlucky, but the one time I tried it, it refused to launch. I'd rather not have my professional work tools be built against a beta channel when there are better alternatives.
- markandrewj 3y ago

tgv 3y ago

Me too. I'm using FF since 3.6, and before that Camino (a derived version for the mac), and the only thing Google has done is strengthen my resolve to keep using Firefox, but I still prefer to debug on Chrome (well, Chromium). It just feels better, even though it's starting to slip and FF is improving slowly.