Ask: Is it time to move all dev tools out of the browser (e.g. Firefox Dev)?

1 pointJadoJodo2 comments

With the Chrome and Firefox tools growing bigger and better every day, is it time to turn the browser into an end-user only model? Would moving the dev tools into their own stand-alone application be a good or bad thing?

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It would be a horrible thing. If I am designing a website to be used by an end-user I absolutely want to test like a user. It's the exact reason I use the IE virtual machine images from Modern.ie — IE emulation doesn't really work.

That's like Toyota asking if the they should stop test-driving their cars. The software industry should be moving _toward_ dogfooding whenever possible, not away from it.

In terms of testing, the best scenarios are, in order of preference:

1) Using your own product the way your customers do. 2) Testing your own product the way your customers do. 3) Testing your product without real-world data. 4) Not testing your product.

You're proposing that we move down to #4. Taking your tests out of the end-user environment is no longer testing your product.

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