Enabling debugging for Safari

[foxfirefey]

If you do web development, this might be useful to know about Safari. You can open up the terminal and use these commands to enable some of the built in debugging tools:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1 
defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitDeveloperExtras -bool true

I don't know much about what the debug menu does, but the developer extras is quite useful. You'll need to restart the browser before it works. Right click on the screen, and then select "Inspect Element" to see the interface.

Comments

[pakratz]

I think it's a shame that these features are disabled by default - that's exactly why I use Firefox and Opera, even though I hardly ever do webdesign.
I really like the 'inspect element' option, thank you for the info!

[foxfirefey]

I think it makes sense, especially for the Debug menu--heck, I'm not even sure what I'd find useful on the Debug menu yet, so I don't think it makes much sense to have in front of most users.

Most users are users that don't do much web dev debugging, so having those features on by default makes clutter, and Apple prefers to declutter for the average user. I do think it would be nice, however, to have these options more easily turn on-able in the preferences pane!

[pakratz]

>I do think it would be nice, however, to have these options more easily turn on-able in the preferences pane!<

Exactly my thinking - the choice of activating the menu entries should be up to the user. But then again, user's choice isn't very Apple (Steve knows best) ;)
By "disabled by default" I meant "out of reach for everyone but shell programmers". The Mac is supposed to be a tool for creative people (and heck, I know some pretty creative web designers), so I don't understand why these features are hidden.
Sorry if I didn't make myself clear in my first reply.

[kareila]

A simpler way to enable this is to look under Advanced Preferences and check "Show Develop menu in menu bar." I think this turns on the Inspect Element functionality as well.

[foxfirefey]

Oh man, I am such a dork! I did not know this because when I tried to Google for it nobody talked about it.