14 DAY TRIAL // Firefox 11 is officially here. Regular users have a couple of features to play with, a big one is add-on sync. But developers are probably a lot happier with the latest release, the set of web development tools that Mozilla has been building into Firefox has expanded to contain a stylesheet editor and writer as well as 3D view for the Page Inspector.
"Page Inspector 3D View, nicknamed Tilt, is a brand new WebGL-based website visualization tool that highlights the structure of a page better than a flat view, so anyone can immediately understand the relationship of the code to the page output," Mozilla explained.
Eager users have been able to test the 3D view for a few months now, as Firefox 11 went through the Aurora and then the Beta stage. Then again, developers prefer a stable platform for doing actual work, so this is probably the first change that the 3D view will get to be tested for real work on a large scale.
It should prove useful to designers and especially when debugging glitches or strange behavior. One caveat is that your computer should be able to run WebGL content, meaning up-to-date drivers and relatively modern hardware. Developer shouldn't have a problem with that.
"Firefox now includes the new Style Editor tool, which allows developers to edit CSS stylesheets like a text editor and see changes instantly, entirely within the browser.
It’s a quick and easy way to iterate and test designs on a website. Once changes are made, the Firefox Style Editor provides a simple way to save the file to your computer," Mozilla wrote.
Another touted feature for developers is the full-blown stylesheet editor that enables designers to live edit CSS code. The tool comes in especially useful for adding new elements, or quickly sketching out a new layout. Developers can save anything they write to continue to edit in more powerful tools.