Personal blog of Yzmir Ramirez

I would argue the Firefox (currently #2), is probably the easiest of the browsers to develop for because of the great add-ons they have available. If you’re not already using any of the below, download them now:

1. Web Developer: Next to Firebug, this is a very useful tool for manipulating and inspecting web pages.  It gives you tools for Javascript, Cookies, CSS, Forms, Images, Validations, and other useful utilities (I use the on-screen Ruler alot as well to get dimensions).
2. Firebug: If you find yourself having to debug Javascript or integrate some of the popular frameworks, you’ll need this tool.  It has some overlap with Web Developer, but when you really need to inspect the DOM and debug Javascript, I can’t think of a better add-on.
3. Colorzilla: Ever wish you had an eyedropper inside Firefox?  Well here’s your tool.  A small add-on that allows you get the colors from a page quickly without having to open up your graphics program or search the style sheet for the color.
4. HackBar: When manipulating a URI is too cumbersome, you may want to invest in this little add-on.  Take a URI you’re on and split each parameter into a separate line in a small text editor in your toolbar.  Then you’ll have quick access to encode, encrypt, increment or decrement parameters easily for POST or GET calls.

Ever wondered if your browser is fast enough?  Ever wanted to benchmark your browser?  Well there’s this tool called Futuremark that will do that for you.  Here’s a summary:

Futuremark’s aim with this benchmark is to put an end to the so-called “browser wars” by removing subjective opinions or analysis of performance with too much room for variability such as loading times.

ZoomTypically, a newly released browser will be subdued to the well known Acid3 web standards test but there are few universally used benchmarks which measure the performance of common web page functions. Peacekeeper is a purely JavaScript-driven benchmark and therefore only tests JavaScript functions. It does not test actual web page loading times and is therefore not affected by connection speeds and the variation that can occur there, nor does it test things like Flash.