Firebug is still unbeatable, chrome dev has a lot to catch up.
I also wonder why Mozilla didn't attempt to acquire firebug instead of building their own tools from scratch?
- inspecting ajax responses in console without flipping to net panel, then hunting for the correct request.
- keeping an inspected/selected html element highlighted on page, not just on mouseover so you can see element bounds. this is useful for tweaking sizing, padding, margins and position.
- as-i-type updating of html rather than on blur
- live highlighting html as it changes
- multiline console
- can't arrange the console tab to be first or arrange the tabs in my most frequently used order. to be fair, FB doesnt offer this either, but I like the console to be first since i spend 90% of my time there in FB, probably cause it's much more useful than chrome's.
there's more that dont immediately come to mind, but not having the first 2 is a major nuisance and productivity killer.
1. Click request in console
2. Find and click request again in Net panel
3. Click Preview or Response tab
4. Click console again to return
and then...
5. Oh wait, want to see something in the headers
6. Rinse and repeat.
In FB:
1. Click request in console.
2. See raw response body right away, or click headers to see headers or json/html to see those rendered nicely.
3. bonus: view multiple json requests in same window
1. Click request in console
2. Click on the request that was just highlighted for you in the Net panel
3. See headers right away, or click Response to see raw response or Preview to see those rendered nicely
4. Click console again to return
and then...
5. Oh wait, want to see something in the headers
6. Go to the Net panel, still there for you
It's a different workflow and it's probably annoying to you since you're not used to it, but "it's not at all useful" is edging past hyperbolic. Personally I feel like a clumsy idiot when I go back to Firebug, even though I used to live in it and once knew every quirk. I think that's just the way of developer tools.
Shift-enter in the Chrome console creates a newline rather than executing.
> live highlighting html as it changes
In the Rendering tab (bottom panel) there's a toggle for "Show paint rectangles" which sounds like its close (but not quite the same) as what you're looking for.
this is not only a major pain in the ass, but also much much worse than just having a persistent multiline editor window that keeps your code, cursor position and selection intact between executions.
there is simply no comparison here.