Like most web developers (that I like) I use Firefox for building my web applications. Its stable, it renders beautifully and it has more 3rd party plugins than you can shake a stick at. But without a doubt the biggest reason I use FF is a plugin called Firebug. I use it primarily for debugging Javascript but Firebug can do sooooo much more. Internet Exploder has nothing like it! Safari didn’t used to .... but for some reason ... it now does?! huh?!

I took a few screenshots tonight from both Firebug and Web Inspector that I thought were interesting.

I didn’t realize it, but Web Inspector now has a Console that you can execute javascript in, just like Firebug’s, and it works wonderfully!! And it has a Profiler like Firebugs, but with more FLARE. It looks reminiscent of the storage bar in iTunes if you happen to have an iPod or iPhone. You’ll also find a DOM browser and CSS attributes browser just like in Firebug.

I’m impressed that Web Inspector has grown into a more mature tool for developers. For whatever reason though, Apple still doesn’t make the tool easy to use. It lacks Firebug’s INSPECT button ... where you can quickly left-click to select a DOM element on a page. Web Inspectors version of this is to right-click on your target ... but thats awkward at best. Knowing Apple, it will remain that way for eternity. Bummer. Web Inspector is neat, but it still cant hold a candle to Firebug. I do hope they improve it.

Oh and by the way ...

Web inspector is hidden by default, if you would like to try it out then open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and paste in the following line at the prompt.

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

Now quit safari and then launch it again. right click somewhere on a page and select Web Inspector. This will also make available a DEBUG menu at the top of your screen. Feel free to browse.