A review of the Firefox add-on Firebug, a Javascript debugger, in the context of the final project for CS 3560 (Software Engineering Tools).

1. Andy Kronz

2.  Written by Joe Hewitt, an original Firefox
developer in January 2006
 Maintained by the FirebugWorking Group
 Free, open source, New BSD License
 Available as Firefox extension
 Cross-platform Lite version for virtually any
browser
 Nearly 3 million users
 Extensions available to add features

3.  Competitors: Opera Dragonfly, MS IE
DeveloperTools, SafariWeb Inspector,
Google Chrome Inspector
 Similarities:All provide debugging of HTML,
CSS, and JavaScript
 Differences: Firebug provides more advanced
feedback and analysis, extensibility, and
comes as a separate add-on instead of being
built in to the browser

4.  Sustainability:Active development since
2006, first alpha for next major release (based
on JSD2) now available
 Performance: Some recent releases plagued
by poor speed and bugs, new version
expected to resolve complaints
 Price:Always FREE and open source 

5.  Benefits: Provides features above and
beyond stock browser offerings
 Cost: Possible performance hit, though
negligible in my experiences, and certainly
worth the headaches saved by guess-and-
check debugging methods

6.  Cross-platform (all major OSs and browsers
supported)
 Lacks native integration with text
editors/IDEs, but can function as a pseudo-
editor itself, and allows for simple cut and
paste to a full-featured editor
 Fairly mild learning curve, easy to dive right in
and explore code, discover new features on
each use

8.  Screencasts
 FAQs
 Wiki
 Google Group

9.  Automatically updated through Firefox
 Development/unstable releases and source
code on Firebug site