Microsoft System Tools

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Debugging JavaScript

Investigation of options for debugging JavaScript.

Researching the options for debugging JavaScript in a browser I have found these development tools:

Mozilla Firefox 2 Browser -

· “Venkman” the code name for Mozilla's JavaScript Debugger. This is freeware.

· Firebug 1.05. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript with this very popular add-on tool. Freeware.

Internet Explorer 7 Browser–

·Microsoft Script Editor.A free component of Microsoft Office XP/2003.

· Microsoft Developer Toolbar Add on.This is Free.

· DebugBar. Free for personal use.

I also found this award winning standalone programme. "SplineTech JavaScript HTML Debugger "is an independent, feature-rich JavaScript Debugger that enables you to easily edit and debug JavaScript inside AJAX, HTML and DHTML. It fully supports native browser side JavaScript. Price $70.00.

My computer system is Microsoft Windows XP, Media Center Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 2; I have installed Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox 2.

Mozilla is my main browser used, so I looked at these options.

Open source Firebug 1.05 (for Firefox 1.5 and 2) is a very powerful and very popular JavaScript debugger. It runs on Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista. It has had 5,474,032 total downloads at the Firefox Add-on site https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. It has useful features like a dynamic console, DOM tree explorer, CSS viewer/editor; script explorer and network monitor to see all Flash, XMLHttpRequest, JS and Images. This is a must have tool for web developers and appears to be indispensable. It helps with performance tweaking and JavaScript debugging and has a great DOM element inspector. A great time saver to find those JavaScript bugs. I am impressed it does not take up any toolbar real estate. Due to JavaScript and other dynamic elements it is able to edit the web site you're viewing and give real-time updates to CSS & layout. Firebug’s one vulnerability is extension authors do not consider the security aspects of their work that much. Browser attacks are possible.

I also downloaded JavaScript Debugger 0.9.87.3. from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/216. It works on Mozilla Firefox Versions .9 to 3. It aims to provide a powerful JavaScript debugging environment. I found that after opening the programme up once and closing it, I could not get it back. This and crashing seemed to be a common complaint. The developers blame Firefox “You cannot open the JavaScript Debugger a second time after closing it - this is not our bug! It is a bug with Firefox 1.5 and 2.0. If we find a way around it, we will of course include it, but until then you must restart Firefox to reopen the debugger.” I personally found it ugly, unintuitive and unworkable.

Conclusion: FireBug stops your JavaScript and steps through it line by line. It is a simple and lightweight way to set breakpoints in your scripts and examine every step of execution. This Mozilla Firefox add on is invaluable for anyone coding JavaScript.

mage: 'Happy Birthday Soudeh :)'
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