Hacker News Reader

Comment by hundredwatt | Hacker News Reader

I have run into problems in the past caused by forgetting to remove console.log() lines from my scripts. If the console wasn't open, then the scripts didn't work.

This isn't a huge problem or reason not to use Firebug (which I would be totally lost without), just something to be wary of.

View on HN

    if(!console)console={log:function(){}};

You're welcome.

This will throw if console is not defined. Try

   if (!window.console)

   if (typeof console == 'undefined')

   if !('console' in window))

 N

Doesn't here. What are you using?

My solution to this issue was to write a console2.log helper function and call that instead of the original console.log:

  var console2 = {
   log: function(msg){
    if(typeof console != 'undefined'){
     console.log(msg);
    }
   }
  }

You can solve(?) this by creating a dummy console.log object when one isn't already present, then throwing away all of the output.

if(!window.console){window.console = {};} if(!(toString(window.console.log) === '[object Function]')) {window.console.log = function(){};}

there, fixed..

This won't work in node. That's not a huge deal, but it's pretty simple to come up with a cleaner solution that works in all environments.

if (window.console) console.log(...);

That really should be built in to console.log.

I may not be entirely sober yet but I believe the problem at hand is what happens when window.console isn't defined at all.

It can be, but only if console.log is defined in your source code. It isn't when you use Firebug, so it won't be when you're not using Firebug.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com