How to Debug JavaScript

Writing a responsive UI in web applications is hampered by a lack of good tools in which to edit and debug JavaScript.  Or at least so I thought. My friend Rob pointed me to a post by Rumen Stankov from telerik who says "good ol' Visual Studio" does a pretty good job with the debugging part:

What VS.NET has to offer is the same integrated environment you are used to from your ASP.NET projects and the best javascript debugger on the market. Just write the magic "debugger;" line in your javascript code and VS.NET will popup in debug mode (make sure you have unchecked the "Disable script debugging" options in IE -> Tools -> Options -> Advanced). From this point on you can take advantage of step over (F10), step into (F11) and the powerful Watch window displaying all the properties/method of the object you inspect.

PS! Another good tool, if you're a Firefox user, is Firebug.

 

Tags: ajax javascript debugging ide