Nov 16, 18:21
IE Developers Toolbar: Beta1
Finally a move towards helping developers to use IE as their testing-environment too. IE Developers Toolbar is Microsoft’s latest addition to IE community. While many tools came into play—Microsoft’s keen to get the market back.
Been ages since every designer & developer bitched about IE and it’s rendering problems. The celebrity bug pikaboo , and many many more that invented many CSS/HTML hacks to prevent bugs in webpage layout and processess. What now? IE 7 with tons of features like RSS reading, tabbed browsing, and now Developers Toolbar.
The bright +ve side
I must say, it’s really innovative. Very usable! Although it’s in Beta1 stage its visibility and the shift to the bottom is one of the best features that I love in IE Developers Toolbar. If you’re a designer that from time to time wanted to know how many pixels is from point A to point B in a webpage then you’ll love the Ruller.
Shadows on the -ve side
No JS inspecter or code viewer yet! And no CSS viewer! If you want to compare or have a contender then take a look at Web Developer Extension for Firefox.
I don’t know if they will add HTTP status, Form, and Cookie read/write tools; but sure they’ll consider doing that or maybe it’s on their to-do lists.
So….
To sum up, it’s a huge addition to IE. Beleive me it is! The last time I had a Web Developer Kit for IE was back in 2000-2001, don’t remember when exactly but it was a poor tool that could show you the tree of elements you have in your document and some really primitive tools. This is a real addition from Microsoft. It’s like a blessing rain after a long wait. But, is it in the right time?
It’s really puzzling me!
What I wonder is; what about developers? Why noone made anything for IE all this time? Or maybe they did but they didnt know where to host it or Microsoft didnt host and support it? This is really puzzling me.
What do you think?
Related Articles
« Previous post: Are you a web pro?
» Next post: AJAX vs Flash, round 2, arena: Web2.0, fight!