Aug 28, 2012
Mozilla’s Firefox seems to be catching up with Google’s Chrome in terms of performance and built-in features. This time it may seem that Firefox is enticing Web programmers with its new features. For Firefox fans, there is the promise of faster browsing experience and memory leaked fixes for every Firefox release. But I think that the memory leak problem is not yet fully resolved.
But after installing it, there’s something to look forward to in the newest version of Mozilla Firefox that I think will be very helpful to Web programmers. With Firefox 15, the new built-in features can now be utilized by Web programmers without using any plugin. I’m now thinking of going back to Firefox to see the improvements and make use of it for my WordPress site troubleshooting purposes.
On my previous work as a Web programmer, I make use of Firebug plugin to change the online HTML version of my work to see the effect immediately. This helps me a lot to code faster by avoiding the code editing-testing-code editing cycle that is very time consuming. As I have said earlier, Firefox 15 can now be used as a programmer tool without using any plugin. This makes the browser much faster than before because the memory is maximized for used by the system.
Element Inspector works like Dreamweaver
For developers learning to code HTML 5, you will be happy to know that Firefox 15 now supports the <audio>, <video> and <source> HTML 5 elements. Also coding and changing HTML attributes and values directly from the browser is now much easier with the new layout view of Element Inspector. It works similar to editing an HTML file in Dreamweaver that you can see both the code and the dimensions of each HTML element. With the revamp Element Inspector, you can now see the height, width, padding, margin etc. of a given HTML object.
In addition to the revamp Element Inspector, Firefox 15 now incorporates a new tool that will allow you to test different screen resolution for your Web designs without having to change it on your Display settings. Responsive Design Tool now makes it easy to change screen resolution by selecting from a predefined values in a dropdown menu. You can also rotate the page within the browser that I think was intended for your Web design to be compatible with touch screen displays.
Responsive Design View allows Web programmers to test different display resolutions
If you’re a loyal Firefox fan, you will notice that there are no changes in the browser’s appearance after installing Firefox 15. But according to Mozilla, this latest version of Firefox boasts of a Faster Debugger. This means that JavaScript applications will now run faster compared to previous versions.
In comparison with Google’s Chrome, I think that it is now much easier to use Firefox 15 as a code editing tool for Web programmers to troubleshoot HMTL codes within the browser.
What do you think Mozilla’s latest Firefox upgrade? Share your thoughts by posting your comments below.
UJIN a.k.a NUTC24CK32 - a video game addict in his childhood days. A computer geek with little interest in English and Math subjects but ends up finishing a degree in Computer Engineering and running his own tech-blog. Currently employed as Sr. Specialist/Sr. Engineer at Globe Telecom doing process automation using PERL. Previously worked at Commission on Elections as a system administrator/web developer/network admin in the IT Department. Interested in gadgets, coding, information technology news, music and dancing.