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And if you want to debug JScript, switch to the script tab and press ‘Start Debugging’. Even if script debugging is disabled, Internet Explorer 8 will remind you that it will refresh the page and enable debugging for only the current IE instance so you won’t see script error dialogs as you browse the web. Or, if you prefer to avoid the page refresh and dialog, just enable script debugging for Internet Explorer in the ‘Advanced’ tab of the Internet Options Control Panel.A Visual Interface to the Platform
In addition to simplifying the debugging process, IE8 Developer Tools offer a new perspective on your site. Instead of just a source view, the tool provides visibility into Internet Explorer’s internal representation of the site. For example, the DOM tree in the tool is built from the tree IE builds internally to display the page, not from your source. So if script changes the tree, IE8 shows you the updated tree. You can also view style information for an element to better understand what rules apply or what rules specify a given style property, as show below.
Fast Experimentation
The Internet Explorer 8 Developer Tools also provide the ability to experiment and iterate rapidly by letting you edit a site within IE. For example, once you’ve found a style rule or property you’re interested in, click a checkbox to enable or disable it, or click an attributes in the DOM tree to edit it in-place.
The tools also provide easy access to all available rendering modes so you can test different modes quickly:
By removing the need to save changes, switch between applications, and refresh the page, the tools make it faster and easier to test, debug, or just experiment.
Now that is just plain awesome :)
Not sure if Firebug does this for FF because it keeps crashing my browser...
But still, there are better tools out there, and even if there weren't I have a huge barrier to entry for switching my primary browser for development, since I've learnt all my tricks elsewhere. Very handy for troubleshooting IE-specific problems, though.
Firefox has various similar tools to show the "built from the tree", as they put it. At least IE was paying attention to that. Incremental M$. They have been successful in that way. I think people wonder about IE8 and broken websites, though. And remember, IE is OS based. The latest FF and Opera and others still run back to Win98 machines. They support M$ far better than M$ does.
Now, if only Linux . . .
I'm a little confused, maybe out of the loop.
Overall, the installed base for IE is around 80% of all Internet users.
Just what, exactly, are developers coming up with - presumably using FF for development - that doesn't take IE into account?
Sure, FF-only plugins, I understand, but what else?
Of course, not everyone takes that approach. But, more pain to them and more profits for those who take the right approach.
There are those companies who choose not only to develop on IE, but test on it exclusively. They are, however, the same companies that require millions of dollars to develop and maintain sites that should only cost tens of thousands of dollars to do so. To me, that's a good thing.
Heck, let me just say it. Can everyone please develop your client's websites in an as bad a method as possible, both front and back end, if you can? Cheers.
