Javascript Debug

I started working with Javascript some years back and at those times to get hold of a js issue was hard. Then came firebug. The tool analyzed the js stuff, gave a console where we could assign new Javascript variables, call functions etc. The Dom tab gave the variables currently declared in the DOM so that analyzing a variable got easier. The Net tab gave all the access made by the page. This included the images, css, js files and even XHR ! Debugging a script became easier with the Script tab.

But that was not enough, as for all things. YSlow came along which gave you a precise idea of the stuff that made your web page slow. Page Speed from Google also gave a great idea of the same. Cookies was introduced which let you view a cookie and modify it.

The debugging in IE was also some thing that developers looked forward to. Developer Bar gave many of the options that Firebug gave. Companion JS is a great tool that let you debug Javascript. Fiddler let you act as a proxy between IE and the server so that you could change a request to fetch a file (js/css) from the local disk.

Smush.it is something that I got to know recently which gives you a compressed version of images thus increasing the response time for a web site. Javascript compression and obfuscation are techniques that we use every time for the js response time reduction.

Many stuff to keep in mind and many to implement to create a great web app.