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Hello DevTools!

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Mozilla Firebird

When I was a 17 year old noob, going to technical college in my home town, I was introduced to a browser called Firebird, which would later be renamed Firefox.  I was immediately drawn to this new browser; Firebird was fresh, exuded excitement, but most of all, provided a few developer tools that made learning front-end development easier and more enjoyable.  It was then that I knew I need to make it to Mozilla one day.

It took me a decade to get to Mozilla and I couldn't have been more excited, proud, and scared.  In my almost six years at Mozilla I've worked on and contributed to a dozen exciting projects, from MDN to Firefox OS to WebVR to the ServiceWorker Cookbook and so on...but I never forgot what made me love that early browser so much, which makes announcing the following so emotional for me: I'm excited to announce I'm joining Mozilla's DevTools team.

Firefox DevTools Debugger

My initial focus will be the DevTools Debugger, which is written in React, Redux, and other piece of that stack.  I can't express how happy I am to get back to full time JavaScript, CSS, and other front-end technologies, while also getting a heavy dose of Node.js.  I'll also get to do more community engagement as well as contribute to other parts of DevTools.  Best of all, when someone says "So you work on Firefox?!", I get to say "yes".  I get to work on a tool that millions of people like me use.  Wow.

I'm also giddy knowing that I'll have loads of new JavaScript, Node.js, CSS, and other great topics to write about. I want to get back to the point where I have so much to share that you'll be seeing new posts every day!

I'm coming back to front-end.
I'm coming back to what got me here.
I'm realizing the dream I had as a teen.
I'm coming back home.

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Discussion

  1. MaxArt

    Congratulations David, for your new career path!
    Wish all the best! Also because it would mean we web developers will gain from your work too!

  2. Eric M Wendelin

    Congrats, Walsh!

  3. Ibrahim Nergiz

    I’m so glad to hear. Congratulations David.

  4. Andrei V.

    This is very good news and I am happy for you! I have been reading your blog for several years now and I believe you’re going to make a significant difference.

    I have been trying hard to switch Firefox (my long love for Opera is rapidly fading…), but there are two things holding me back: the lack of a speed dial tailored to my needs (I think this is the only thing still keeping me tied to Opera…) and a somewhat difficult to work with developer console (I’m being very subjective here).

    I am slowly taking care of the first part (the web extension is not yet ready but what I have looks good and does what I need it to), but I can’t really influence the second part. I am confident though that, with you on board, the talented folks working on it will (continue to) develop the best debugging experience ever.

  5. zakius

    too bad Firefox got the Chropera treatment and became as useless as every Chromium fork
    and Mozilla is not willing to fix this, or even to admit they failed miserably

  6. Florin

    great news!

  7. Sebastián

    Dear David
    PLEASE bring back the 3D view to the web dev tools, it was the most useful tool ever and unique to Firefox. Please make Firefox great again.

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