User:Rcampbell/Firebug

Firebug

I'm currently working on Firebug as a member of the Firebug Working Group. My goal is to assist the project with infrastructure and process, as well as coding and bug fixes.

Web Debugger Feature Comparison

NB: This is a document under construction. The WebKit Web Inspector and Opera Dragonfly comparisons were done well over a month ago (at time of this writing) and is in need of updating. Further notes about what the contents of the feature column are also necessary. robcee 18:08, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Feature	Firebug	Safari Web Inspector*	Opera Dragonfly†
Interactive Console	•	•	•
Snippet Editor		•
Environment			•
HTML Editing	•	•
Style of Elements	•	•	•
Layout	•	•	•
Rulers and Guides	•
Computed CSS	•	•	•
Edit CSS	•	•1	•1
Path	•	•	•
Script Debugging	•	•	•
Remote Debugging	8		•
Breakpoints	•	•
Eval Scripts	•	•	•
Conditional Breakpoints	•
Watch Variables	•
Call Stack	•	•	•
Thread Log			•7
Scoped Variables	•	•	•
Colors	•
DOM	•	•2	•6
User-defined properties	•	•3	•
User-defined Functions	•	•3	?
DOM Properties	•	•3	?
DOM functions	•	•3	?
DOM constants	•	•3	?
Network	•	•4
Timelines	•	•
GET/POST Request	•	•
Response Headers	•	•
Media popups	•	•
JS Profiling	•	•5
Databases		•

• * WebKit nightly version r35973
• † Opera beta 9.52 build 4916
• ? Unknown

1. - Edit non-computed values only
2. - Called “Properties” in Elements (HTML) view
3. - Not as a selectable option, components are broken down by DOM object
4. - Called “Resources”
5. - Unable to see this feature in action, crashed my browser
6. - Properties in DOM view
7. - Worker threads?
8. - Available in Firebug with Aptana

Firebug test-cases and code

• http://fbug.googlecode.com/svn/tests/
• http://www.janodvarko.cz/firebug/tests/

Firebug-related Firefox bugs

from an email exchange with JJB and group:

I think these are all nice to have, but if I have to isolate the top pain points they would be:

1. double load. This should be fixed already, bug 430155
   1. bug 449198 http-on-examine-response isn't fired when a response comes from the cache - check with Honza on how important — honza's reply: Yes, this one would help a lot! It's related to the net panel stuff. Currently there is quite hacky workaround; it would be awesome if I could do it properly.
2. AJAX performance
   1. bug 379410 debugger script detection using parent JSScript* (morph for jsd) would reduce the number of script-creation calls (the most expensive ones) by two orders of magnitude.
   2. bug 449454 [jsd] Add frame argument to every jsd callback, eg jsdIScriptHook would avoid taking a breakpoint for every jsdIScript created
   3. bug 415008 eval Performance Regression (morph to implement CRC32) — would accelerate the common case for eval()
3. tab-based debugging (focus on one window).
   1. bug 342715 Need an API to allow extensions to hook "document load started" events would eliminate weird code in tabWatcher.
   2. bug 449458 [jsd] Extend jsdIFilter coverage to include jsdIScriptHook would reduce overhead of jsd on pages you are not debugging.
   3. bug 228205 Redesign nsIConsoleService and related APIs — would improve error reporting accuracy and speed.
4. error messages
   1. bug 228205 Redesign nsIConsoleService and related APIs — should give stack traces on all errors.
   2. bug 445355 Exception... "Component is not available" provides inadequate information — maybe we would know what these mean.

Performance Analyses

• Firebug JS Performance
• Firebug Talos Performance Analysis