When a problem comes along
You must whip it
—Devo,
"Whip It"
Documentation can help in troubleshooting issues with our JavaScript applications, but there is no replacement for a good set of software development tools. Fortunately, there are many software packages available for inspecting and debugging JavaScript code, and most of them are available for free.
Mozilla Firefox is the browser of choice for the lion’s share of web developers, and therefore has some of the most extensive and well-respected development tools.
The Firebug extension for Firefox is indispensable for jQuery development:
Some of the features of Firebug are :
This not only overlaps Firebug in the area of DOM inspection, but also contains tools for common tasks like cookie manipulation, form inspection, and page resizing. You can also use this toolbar to quickly and easily disable JavaScript for a site to ensure that functionality degrades gracefully when the user’s browser is less capable:
Venkman is the official JavaScript debugger for the Mozilla project. It provides a troubleshooting environment that is reminiscent of the GDB system for debugging programs that are written in other languages.