Since Firefox19beta, I cannot use Inspector and Style Editor at the sametime This is lack of usability. And it is necessary to re-consider UI. Steps to reproduce: 1. Open any page 2. Tools > Web Developer > Inspector 3. Tools > Web Developer > Style Editor Actual results: Inspector will be hidden. Style Editor is only visible. Expected results: Inspector and Style Editor should be visible at the same time. And I can use both tools at the same time. Regression window(m-c) Good: http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/1b7103181091 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:20.0) Gecko/20121130 Firefox/20.0 ID:20121130020812 Bad: http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/d2fbc67f69f5 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:20.0) Gecko/20121130 Firefox/20.0 ID:20121130055213 Pushlog: http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=1b7103181091&tochange=d2fbc67f69f5 Regressed by: c77b869c2025 Joe Walker — Bug 788977 - [toolbox] Land the developer tools window; r=harth,jwalker,mikeratcliffe,paul,dão

Sorry, err s/Since Firefox19beta,/Since Firefox20.0a1,/

Joe - is this expected behavior?

(In reply to Alex Keybl [:akeybl] from comment #2) > Joe - is this expected behavior? It is expected, but the complaint is expected and valid too. There is a more general request - to be able to see 2 (or maybe more, but probably 2?) tools at the same time. For example the debugger and web console "fit together". We've been talking about ways to accommodate the request for a while, and have vague plans for a side-by-side option. The number of complaints we get, will make that happen sooner! Thanks for the report Alice. (Changed the title to the more general case)

I see 3 options: 1) allow 2 tools to be showed at the same time 2) allow the Inspector Sidebar to be showed in the Style Editor 3) add an inspect button in the Style Editor + special integration in source editor (highlight matching rules) Heather, what do you think of option 3?

I like 3. Though it might even be good to show an inspect button globally, not just within the Inspector and Style Editor tools.

I also like the idea of 3, but I don't think it is sufficient. I think the only reason we're not getting tons of complaints about the webconsole/debugger is that the webconsole doesn't work in the context of the debugger, but that will be a common complaint as soon as it does.

(In reply to Joe Walker [:jwalker] from comment #6) > I also like the idea of 3, but I don't think it is sufficient. I think the > only reason we're not getting tons of complaints about the > webconsole/debugger is that the webconsole doesn't work in the context of > the debugger, but that will be a common complaint as soon as it does. The webconsole is an exception I think. Like for the other browsers, we need to make sure it's available anytime. The fact we can't show 2 tools at the same time is a usability tradeoff. If we want to keep the UI simple, I believe we should not allow showing 2 tools simultaneously. A better approach would be to allow tools components to be embedded in other tools. For example, showing the inspector sidebar in the style editor, or showing the input of the webconsole in the debugger. That said, in term of code, it's pretty simple to show 2 or more tools at the same time.

(In reply to Heather Arthur [:harth] from comment #5) > I like 3. Though it might even be good to show an inspect button globally, > not just within the Inspector and Style Editor tools. True. It's then up to the tool to do something when a node is selected.

(In reply to Paul Rouget [:paul] from comment #7) > (In reply to Joe Walker [:jwalker] from comment #6) > > I also like the idea of 3, but I don't think it is sufficient. I think the > > only reason we're not getting tons of complaints about the > > webconsole/debugger is that the webconsole doesn't work in the context of > > the debugger, but that will be a common complaint as soon as it does. > > The webconsole is an exception I think. Like for the other browsers, we need > to make sure it's available anytime. > > The fact we can't show 2 tools at the same time is a usability tradeoff. If > we want to keep the UI simple, I believe we should not allow showing 2 tools > simultaneously. A better approach would be to allow tools components to be > embedded in other tools. For example, showing the inspector sidebar in the > style editor, or showing the input of the webconsole in the debugger. > > That said, in term of code, it's pretty simple to show 2 or more tools at > the same time. I agree with thinking of the webconsole as a special case in the short term, but longer term, I think that combinations like debugger+profiler are more desirable than style editor+webconsole, so we need to consider a more generic need longer term. I agree we don't want to make a complex UI while considering those generic needs. Thinking of computed styles as a tool, and allowing it to be embedded in a style editor makes sense to me. The other thing we could think of is just having one tool and merging the style editor and the inspector. The markup panel would just be another thing you could edit.

Let's call things like the Computed View or the breadcrumbs or the webconsole input, "components". So yeah, being able to show a component from tool A in tool B could be nice. Showing two panels at the same time, I'm not sure.

(In reply to Paul Rouget [:paul] from comment #10) > Let's call things like the Computed View or the breadcrumbs or the > webconsole input, "components". So yeah, being able to show a component from > tool A in tool B could be nice. Showing two panels at the same time, I'm not > sure. What code-wise is the difference between a panel and a component?

Crazy idea incoming, sorry if I have missed some of the convo around this. What if you could control/cmd click on a tab to have it be shown with whatever tool you were currently using?

The ability to see the console at the same as any other tool has landed a long time ago with bug 862558. I filed bug 1121414 to generalize the split-console concept to any other tool.