Firefox 15 will introduce new tools for aiding webdesigners
working onresponsive sites. The responsivemode places a web page 'within' the
browser window, enabling youto manually resize it, snap to specificviewport
dimensions, and to rotate the viewport.
According to Mozilla's Chris Heilmann (@codepo8, principal evangelist)
and Kevin Dangoor(@dangoor, product manager,developer tools), the mode primarily
aims to simplify working on responsive web designs. A pileof devices is
inconvenient and expensive, while manually resizing abrowser window can lead to
losingspace for developer tools and othercontrols. Fi refox's responsive
modefixes both problems, according to the
pair, along with breaking out ofthe conventional 'developer panel' view found in most browsers:
"By modularising the developer tools
into different panes and allowing the developer to choose what theywant to see,
we have more options to extend the classic 'console, element inspector and DOM
view' models”
The pair also argued tools of this sort are important for
reducing the friction involved in creating responsive sites, and they show how
browsersare increasingly becoming testing and development platforms: "The
ability to see changes live is a very powerful draw. Instant feedback and iteration makes the development process faster and more fun. Making the path
from development to final product as short as possible is the job of any good developer
tool."
Developers we spoke to were spliton the new mode.
ZURB's JonathanSmiley {@smiley) thought it was "nice,but not
earth-shattering” and said he was concerned about the disconnect between it and
how work will actually be rendered: "You can see how the responsive part
will work, but you don't get a true representation ofhow another engine will
handle your code". Christian Oliff (@christianoliff) thought otherwise:
"Firefox is already my favourite tool for testing websites in various
resolutions, and it's useful for testing on myriad Android smart phones and
tablet screen sizes".
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