3 ms·

alert() and confirm() have one feature that no other alert system can match -- the execution of the surrounding script blocks at the calling location.

• Drakim 14y ago
  Indeed, it can be abused as a sort of primitive step-by-step debugging tool.
  • zackbloom 14y ago
    I remember the days before the "Don't allow this site to show more alerts" checkbox when, if you accidentally left an alert in a loop, your only option was Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
    • ysangkok 14y ago
      Weird how you had JavaScript support but no process killing. I imagine you must have used DOS. What browser? Arachne didn't have JavaScript support...
      • kibibu 14y ago
        Ctrl-Alt-Del is one of the ways to access the task manager in Windows, with which you can kill a process.
  • tlrobinson 14y ago
    You could even instrument your code to implement a full debugger using "prompt". In fact, I did: https://github.com/tlrobinson/xebug https://github.com/tlrobinson/xebug
• teraflop 14y ago
  In at least Firefox and Chrome, you can use the "debugger;" statement to not only block execution, but actually drop into the interactive debugger.