[thelist] What is wrong with this site?

Simon Willison cs1spw at bath.ac.uk
Mon Aug 18 17:59:32 CDT 2003


Bill Haenel wrote:

>>The reason, as I touched on before, is simple: a 
>>web browser is a development tool.
> 
> How 'bout, "a web browser CAN BE a development tool?"
> 
> One could argue that a web browser can also be used as a utility for
> browsing the web.

Hehe, you've got me there. Of coruse a browser is fore-most a tool for 
browsing the web. My point remains clear though: it has a dual purpose 
as a development tool, and as such the web would be a much better place 
if browsers had never started competing over who could accept the 
lousiest HTML. Unfortunately they did, and the damage is permanent. I 
don't have to like it though.

>>Silently fixing mistakes is NOT an aid to developers.
> 
> Could be considered an aid to users, though, couldn't it? Or perhaps
> not.

It's a false favour. In the short term it's good for the users; in the 
long term it's bad for them as it cripples new browsers (due to a 
polluted web that they must try to unrabel) thus discouraging 
competition and slowing innovation.

> Can you imagine the state the web would be in if most of the browsing
> public used a programmer's tool to browse the web? Wait...I think you're
> suggesting that they do. Fair point, though. It does cause one to
> question: Should we be using the same tool for developing our products
> that our users/customers do for actually enjoying the product? 

What a fascinating question. I'd say not: while we should of course 
/test/ in the browser used by our users, we would be better to /develop/ 
in a tool that is better suited for development. For me, that means 
Mozilla or Mozilla Firebird - while they can be thought of as end user 
tools as well, they provide a stricter debugging environment (especially 
if you develop in XHTML with the correct doctype) and far better tools, 
such as the DOM Inspector and the Javascript console. They still double 
up as end user tools though. I suppose in a medium such as the web where 
markup is interpreted (no compile stage) the development tool and the 
end-user tool logically ends up being the same thing.

Cheers,

Simon



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