The Lighter Side of Code

As a developer I think anything that helps me figure out visual problem faster is great for me.  It is my opinion that Firefox is the best browser out there for development work.  If you include the many plugins and the fact that you can use frame specific properties, if you are working with frames, Firefox is far superior.  So, when I started extending Firefox to help me work faster and with less pain and suffering I found these plugins.  The main reaosn I am writing this post is to inform the folks who don’t use any tools other than CF studio 5 or just Dreamweaver.  So, here we go:

Although I don’t use this plugin all the time, it is necessary for another one of the four plugins I have listed.  I occassionally use Firebug for javascript debugging and css manipulation, but the main reason I have Firebug is for:

YSlow is a plugin that analyzes you page and tells you why it is running slow.  This plugin is great when you have gotten your queries working correctly and your page is still running slow.  This is the final touch plugin I use to get a site optimized.

SeoQuake is what I use when I am working on the SEO of a website, or looking at tricks that others use to get high rankings.  I have only been using this for a short period of time, but with all the information available to you it’s become invaluable for me.

Finally, my all time favorite

This plugin is simply the cat’s pajamas!  Matching this plugin and cfeclipse has increased my productivity immensely.  My favorite features are the “Display Element Information” and the “View Form Information”, but that’s because I use those a lot.  Quite frankly, if you can think of something that you would like to view in the generated HTML, Javascript, or CSS you can probably find an option to display it with Web Developer.  Whether it’s image sizes and dimensions, editing css information, or outlining tables and divs, this bad boy is sweet.  If you don’t have this plugin or if you haven’t used it yet, you have to start.  I will step off the soap box now.

Lu Sancea Firefox Firefox, plugins

Well, for a few days now I have been working with Firefox 3RC and I have been pretty happy with the performance updates.  I like the fact that my CPU RAM isn’t getting taxed by Firefox like FF2.  Well, I found an interesting bug when using gmail.  Seems that when you close gmail Firefox crashes, and I haven’t taken the time to find out what Google is doing that is causing the problem.  I have found the solution to the problem, at least for now.  If you switch the Gmail version to the older version it will clear up the problem.  Just and FYI.

Lu Sancea Firefox Firefox, Gmail