5 ms·

Firebug 3 and Multiprocess Firefox

116 points by bpierre 12y ago

DrinkWater 12y ago
i am curious, what is the advantage of using Firebug instead of the built-in developer tools?
- JohnBooty 12y ago
  One advantage is that there are plugins, like YSlow from Yahoo, that are available for Firebug. Though the article notes that plugins don't currently work with the Firebug 3 alpha. YSlow is pretty useful, both as a developer and when attempting to demonstrate potential problems with a site's performance to others in an objective way. Besides: a plugin with its own plugins is just cool.
- arenaninja 12y ago
  I think Firefox Dev Tools may have reached parity with Firebug. Up until recently (~3 months), Firebug was superior in network, more informative in console when using console.log for objects, resizing, etc. Still, Firebug does have add-ons
  - Touche 12y ago
    Firefox Dev Tools still has some gigantic bugs that make it unusable for a lot of scenarios. For example, it doesn't show evaled code in the debugger. Which means anything that dynamically creates code (common in development) can't be debugged. Shumway (the Firefox flash compiler) for example.
    - illumen 12y ago
      Using both is sort of needed at the moment. Firebug for example doesn't do source maps. Also, firebug is too slow for some pages I've worked on. But of course firebug does some things better still.
    - mbrubeck 12y ago
      That's fixed in Firefox 36, which will be released to the Developer Edition channel this Friday. (You can test it on the Nightly channel now.) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=865313 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=865313 https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/#aurora https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/#aurora https://nightly.mozilla.org/ https://nightly.mozilla.org/
      - Touche 12y ago
        Believe me I've been following this issue closely for a long time and know the status. While the large work that was needed has been done, it hasn't been fixed completely. In my case I get evaled items to show up but they 1) don't have actual names just foo.js -> eval and 2) don't have the actual source shown. I think this might be the issue that is blocking me: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=833744 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=833744 So while this is "on the road" to being fixed, it's not fixed completely.
        mbrubeck 12y ago
        You can give scripts names using the sourceURL pragma: http://fitzgeraldnick.com/weblog/59/ http://fitzgeraldnick.com/weblog/59/ And I'm not sure what you mean about the source. I see the correct source when I debug evaled scripts in Firefox Nightly.
- Fuxy 12y ago
  I use a number of plugins in firebug like YSlow and FireLogger that unfortunately don't work with the default Firefox developer tools. I honestly wish they did since there are very few features I would miss from Firebug itself but the plugins add very useful features.
- ep103 12y ago
  Firebug is basically built to extend default FF dev tool capabilities. Its comparable to running chrome nightlies.
kyriakos 12y ago
Firefox own developer tools won't log ajax calls in console. Firebug does. This and the fact that you need to open the settings tab to enable preserve log are my problems with Firefox tools keeping me on firebug.
- nathanstitt 12y ago
  I agree, that's the single feature that's always kept me loyal to Firebug. There's a bug open on that at: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=972655 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=972655 I'm attempting to find time to assist with it, but haven't thus far. Perhaps throwing it out here will bring in additional assistance
- eterm 12y ago
  Personally I've switched back to dev tools in the developer edition, mostly because the ability to see which elements have events attached from the markup view is very useful.
- makmanalp 12y ago
  Hmm. What's the use case for ajax calls in the console instead of just switching to the network tab? Convenience?
  - illumen 12y ago
    Yeah. Why make people switch? Almost every app does ajax calls, so it's very useful to have that information there for almost every developer.
  - kyriakos 12y ago
    yes convenience, saves time switching back and forth. chrome didn't have this feature either but they recently added it (even though not as good as firebug's since when you click on the entry in the console it takes you to the network panel and hightlights the entry rather than opening it up automatically)
- robbyt 12y ago
  AFAIK, the built-in developer tools in FFox > v33 log ajax calls now.

116 points by bpierre 12y ago

DrinkWater 12y ago

i am curious, what is the advantage of using Firebug instead of the built-in developer tools?

JohnBooty 12y ago
One advantage is that there are plugins, like YSlow from Yahoo, that are available for Firebug. Though the article notes that plugins don't currently work with the Firebug 3 alpha. YSlow is pretty useful, both as a developer and when attempting to demonstrate potential problems with a site's performance to others in an objective way. Besides: a plugin with its own plugins is just cool.
arenaninja 12y ago
I think Firefox Dev Tools may have reached parity with Firebug. Up until recently (~3 months), Firebug was superior in network, more informative in console when using console.log for objects, resizing, etc. Still, Firebug does have add-ons
- Touche 12y ago
  Firefox Dev Tools still has some gigantic bugs that make it unusable for a lot of scenarios. For example, it doesn't show evaled code in the debugger. Which means anything that dynamically creates code (common in development) can't be debugged. Shumway (the Firefox flash compiler) for example.
  - illumen 12y ago
    Using both is sort of needed at the moment. Firebug for example doesn't do source maps. Also, firebug is too slow for some pages I've worked on. But of course firebug does some things better still.
  - mbrubeck 12y ago
    That's fixed in Firefox 36, which will be released to the Developer Edition channel this Friday. (You can test it on the Nightly channel now.) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=865313 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=865313 https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/#aurora https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/#aurora https://nightly.mozilla.org/ https://nightly.mozilla.org/
    - Touche 12y ago
      Believe me I've been following this issue closely for a long time and know the status. While the large work that was needed has been done, it hasn't been fixed completely. In my case I get evaled items to show up but they 1) don't have actual names just foo.js -> eval and 2) don't have the actual source shown. I think this might be the issue that is blocking me: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=833744 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=833744 So while this is "on the road" to being fixed, it's not fixed completely.
      - mbrubeck 12y ago
        You can give scripts names using the sourceURL pragma: http://fitzgeraldnick.com/weblog/59/ http://fitzgeraldnick.com/weblog/59/ And I'm not sure what you mean about the source. I see the correct source when I debug evaled scripts in Firefox Nightly.
Fuxy 12y ago
I use a number of plugins in firebug like YSlow and FireLogger that unfortunately don't work with the default Firefox developer tools. I honestly wish they did since there are very few features I would miss from Firebug itself but the plugins add very useful features.
ep103 12y ago
Firebug is basically built to extend default FF dev tool capabilities. Its comparable to running chrome nightlies.

kyriakos 12y ago

Firefox own developer tools won't log ajax calls in console. Firebug does. This and the fact that you need to open the settings tab to enable preserve log are my problems with Firefox tools keeping me on firebug.

nathanstitt 12y ago
I agree, that's the single feature that's always kept me loyal to Firebug. There's a bug open on that at: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=972655 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=972655 I'm attempting to find time to assist with it, but haven't thus far. Perhaps throwing it out here will bring in additional assistance
eterm 12y ago
Personally I've switched back to dev tools in the developer edition, mostly because the ability to see which elements have events attached from the markup view is very useful.
makmanalp 12y ago
Hmm. What's the use case for ajax calls in the console instead of just switching to the network tab? Convenience?
- illumen 12y ago
  Yeah. Why make people switch? Almost every app does ajax calls, so it's very useful to have that information there for almost every developer.
- kyriakos 12y ago
  yes convenience, saves time switching back and forth. chrome didn't have this feature either but they recently added it (even though not as good as firebug's since when you click on the entry in the console it takes you to the network panel and hightlights the entry rather than opening it up automatically)
robbyt 12y ago
AFAIK, the built-in developer tools in FFox > v33 log ajax calls now.