Screen Reader Friendly Console Error Logs - debugging

Does anyone know of a browser that has a screen reader friendly debugging console? I have a friend whose a blind programmer and it drives her nuts that she can't easily "see" the console log errors.

This drives me nuts also. Unfortunately, the best solution for now is IE 10. This is awful what they did to IE 11 but I hope to convince them to make this more accessible.
And yes, I'm working with JAWS, so it might be different for NVDA, Window Eyes or Supernova.

I personally use Firebug for Firefox. After installing it, in the Web Developer menu of the tools menu, go into Firebug, Options, then turn on the accessibility enhancements. Some bits aren't perfect, but the console window at least is. It has a list of log rows that can be navigated with the up/down arrows and then a bit for typing in your own js commands. To get to the Firebug window when you open it with F12, use F6. Also works for getting out of it too.
Hope this works for your friend as well as its worked for me.

Related

Inspecting a browser's Developer Tools [duplicate]

According to Google this can be accomplished by visiting "chrome-devtools://devtools/devtools.html" in Chrome but now visiting that page in the stable version of Chrome (or Canary), just shows a 99% stripped version of the inspector.
To reiterate my "title" this is in reference to "inspecting" the inspector. Not just inspecting a normal webpage.
And while I don't think it's necessary to know to resolve the issue, I"m inspecting the inspector so I can style it as discussed by Paul Irish and here: https://darcyclarke.me/articles/development/skin-your-chrome-inspector/
Follow these easy steps!
Press Command+Option+i (Ctrl+Shift+i on Windows) to open DevTools.
Make sure that the developer tools are undocked into a new window. You may have to undock from the menu:
Press Command+Option+i again on this new window.
That will open the DevTools on the DevTools.
You can redock the page's DevTools if you want.
If it's not already, select Elements — it's the first icon at the top of the inspector.
A little beyond the scope of your question, but still valid in understanding why you're experiencing your problem can be found by understanding how Chrome Developer Tools: Remote Debugging works.
Open chrome://inspect
Open the inspector on that page (cmd + alt + i)
Scroll to the bottom of the page, under the Other section click the inspect link
The URL in the Other section should look something like this:
chrome-devtools://devtools/devtools.html?docked=true&dockSide=bottom&toolbarColor=rgba(230,230,230,1…
EDIT: they've fancied up the chrome:inspect page so you have to click the Other header on the left to get this to work now.
I just got this to work. The key is that you have to start up chrome in 'Remote Debugging' mode.
on OSX, open an terminal window and execute the following:
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222
On windows, Its
chrome.exe --remote-debugging-port=9222
(better windows instructions can be found here: https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-tools/docs/remote-debugging#remote)
This will start up an instance of chrome, that will send debugging messages to a local webserver on port 9222.
If you access that web service, it will give you the ability to use the inspector to inspect any chrome window that is running. Since we want to inspect the inspector, we need to start an inspector window first (As above Use the shortcut keys; for Mac it's Command+option+i.)
Now, go ahead and navigate to
http://localhost:9222
It will present you with a list of windows to display in the debugger. Select the window that starts with "Developer Tools" and you'll be able to inspect the css for the inspector.
Its hard to see in the image below, but on the left I have my chrome window pointing at the remote debugger, highlighting one of the toolbar labels. On the right you see it lit up with the tooltip just as if we were debugging a web page.
A few weeks ago somebody pointed this out in stackoverflow's "javscript" chatroom. First, and very importantly, make sure the inspector is undocked from your browser window. Then it's just a matter of opening a inspector window and then inspecting that window. In windows it's CtrlShiftI (Edit: I said, CtrlShiftI but that brings up the console inspecting the console... you should be able to navigate back and forth.) for the keyboard shortcut. (Other keyboard combos for other options and OSes here and here.) Just do that twice and you're good.
Edit: ok, you're probably confused as to undock the window. This is what you'd click if it's docked..
Edit II: I'm not quite sure why you can't inspect. JDavis's answer is consistent with the Google Docs for Apple computers. If you're using Linux it appears to be the same as Windows. You supposed to hit the inspector key combination while the focus is over the inspector window.

GAS Debugger immediately closes itself upon error; some questions about debugging

I have a script that I'm trying to debug, but the debugger immediately closes itself when it hits an error and dismisses the error message. I could manually open the log and wait for it to load every time I hit a stop, but that wastes a lot of time when it could just pop up on my screen. I figure it has to be an easy fix and I probably did something stupid, but one gets pretty tired of Google's shit when you've read blog headlines such as "THE 6 DEADLY SINS OF GOOGLE APPS SCRIPT ADD-ON DEVELOPMENT" for the 50th time in as many search queries. Anyways, rant over.
When I hit debug, the debugger will run, a white tray pops up at the bottom of my screen and stays empty. When it hits an error, it will flash the error message across the top of the window and immediately close/dismiss that error as well the tray that popped up. The tray looks like the one in the image below, except completely empty.
Has anyone else had this issue and know why it might be happening? Also, can anyone tell me if there is a Matlab-style workspace explorer that displays each user-defined variable and what kind of data it holds? I would find that extremely helpful in debugging. That, and a live in-window console/log.
This is a known issue. Star(on the top left) the issue to let Google know that you're affected and for the issue to be prioritised. Some of the features you requested is already in development
New IDE features Monaco for cutting edge code editing, streaming logs, reliable debugging and Material design. Seamless integration into the G Suite Developer Hub lets users design, develop, deploy and manage their projects all in one place.
In the meantime, You can use clasp in your local IDE.
Related question:
V8 engine no longer breaks on errors

Quick Launch toolbar keeps randomly disappearing (windows 7)

I am really used to quick launch toolbar from windows XP. When I moved to Windows 7, I replicated this functionality using some of the guides, such as here or here.
But every now and then it simply disappears and I have to go through the adding process again. It happens approx. once a month. I haven't managed to track anything, what it would be related to (crashes, headaches, windows updates, new program installations...). It seems to me to be completely random.
There is quite a few posts about this issue in the internet, but either the problem is "it always disappears" (like here or here), or the answer is "add it back like this" (here), or the answer didn't help me (like here or here).
Any idea appreciated.
Disable the Language Bar, then recreate the Quick Launch Bar. That should do it. The Language Bar interferes with it.
Try Disabling Windows Maintenance Mode.

How to make Firefox debugger run in a separate window/tab?

I do wonder if it's possible to open the Firefox's (I have 18.0.1) debugger in a new window/tab as right now the debugger's pane is too small at the bottom of the page.
[Edit]
Ok, I've made a few screenshots to show that Firefox does have a debugger on its own:
Current Firefox nightlies have a little two-window icon next to the 'x' in the debugger toolbar that tears it off into a separate window, but that might not be present in 18 yet...
If you mean Firebug, these directions should be sufficient.
Click on the Firebug launch icon so the hidden submenu appears.
Hover over "Firebug UI Location"
Select "Detached"
EDIT:
Ok I see... you are using the Firefox built in Developer Tools and not Firebug.
So as far as I understand, there seems to be no way to run the JavaScript Debugger on a separate window for non-remote work. Here is a statement directly from the JS Debugger docs:
The JavaScript debugger is available in two varieties: one for
debugging content running directly in Firefox, and another that lets
you debug code running on a Firefox OS device, or in Firefox on an
Android device. The main difference between the two is that the Remote
Debugger runs in its own window, while the web content debugger runs
in the same tab as the Web content you're debugging.
Also here is a link to the Debugger's docs:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Debugger
Why do you think that the Debugger view is too small? If you hover over the top bar, you can drag it up/down as much as you need to. Aslo are you sure that the JavaScript Debugger is what you're trying to use? For example Firefox has other tools as well. The "More Tools" link shows other built in tools as well - all these tools together are called the "Developer Tools". Here is a link to all of their docs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools
I hope this makes more sense now!
Screenshot:

Using PostMessage in Windows Mobile to simulate a menu pick

I'm writing a routine to provide user definable keyboard short-cuts for any menu item in my Windows Mobile 5 application, which is in C++/MFC. To do this I am getting all of the available menu command IDs, and using the CWnd::PostMessage(WM_COMMAND,MyMenuID) to post it to the application. I use this technique to good effect elsewhere for inter-thread comms, but not with menu command IDs. Any ideas why this doesn't work. The app is document view, and I have tried posting to the CMainFrame and CView derived windows. I could write a god awful switch statement but I feel posting a message should work.
Edit: Ok, i've tried a number of things, including suggestions from this post, to no avail. Big ugly switch statement it is for now, I'll update again if i find anything better.
The only reason I can think of is the message is going to the wrong window. Don't forget that not all menu commands are always processed by a particular window. Some menu commands like Cut are usually processed by a view window. Others are processed by frame windows and some possibly by the application object.
Hope this helps.

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