Anyone noticed ... change in Chrome's JS Alert position?

dalecosp

I run some scripts that use JS alerts to tell me when an action is completed.

As of this morning I noticed that the alerts are no longer "centered" on the monitor, but at the center "top" ...

Anyone else seen this?

Seems weird... :queasy:

Bonesnap

I have not noticed this because I'm part of the glorious Firefox masterrace. 🙂

dalecosp

Bonesnap;11032603 wrote:
I have not noticed this because I'm part of the glorious Firefox masterrace. 🙂

Lulz ... I have 5 browsers installed 'cuz I be a WWW programmer! 😛

dalecosp

But seriously, now ... we don't feel we can ignore Chrome, as it's passed FF in our analysis of our audience. I read some of the discussion (even from Google employees) on this decision, and found them rather arrogant ... as if they had an onus to change user behavior. I don't think they'll do this successfully, particularly if no one else joins them in it, and, as a result, I'm going to have to start replacing window.alert() with a custom function in old work and every time I want to use it in the future ...

bradgrafelman

If it has the effect of forcing developers to move away from alert()'s towards jQuery UI modal windows and the like, I'd say it's a bonus. I've always liked the latter in a finished product; the former just reminds me too much of my spray-n-pray hacking days of debugging Javascript using alert()'s rather than breakpoints and watch windows. :p

dalecosp

"Bonus", yes; but they've broken a ton of legacy applications.

bradgrafelman wrote:
breakpoints and watch windows.

How long has such been available? I've only been using Firebug and friends about 3 years. I have JS alert() calls in {working} code dating back to the early part of the century ...

Weedpacket

Firefox's alert boxes are also higher, now. Not as high as Chrome's, though: I'd say the bottom of the alert box is just above the viewport's midline.

dalecosp wrote:
How long has such been available? I've only been using Firebug and friends about 3 years.

Firebug's been around about five years; Venkman and the DOM Inspector date back to Netscape days (but who uses Venkman?); and if I recall rightly, FF's native tools (the Web Console) started being added around version 4, but didn't mature until the rapid-release cycle kicked in.

dalecosp

Weedpacket wrote:
Firefox's alert boxes are also higher, now

I thought so.

but who uses Venkman?

Considering I had to "google" Venkman, we can say with surety "not me" 😃

I guess I do remember the debugger in Seamonkey (which was analagous) that I used to use on FreeBSD desktops.

Thanks for chiming in.

bradgrafelman

Only Venkman I've ever used was Peter, and that's only if there's something strange in the neighborhood.

Bonesnap

dalecosp;11033293 wrote:
"Bonus", yes; but they've broken a ton of legacy applications.

Is moving the alert message from the centre to the centre top really breaking legacy applications? And are people really noticing this (much less complaining)? Apparently Firefox moved its position as well. I certainly haven't noticed.

dalecosp

bradgrafelman wrote:
Only Venkman I've ever used was Peter, and that's only if there's something strange in the neighborhood.

The namesake, indeed. Aren't there quite a few strange neighborhoods up there? 😃

Bonesnap;11033377 wrote:
Is moving the alert message from the centre to the centre top really breaking legacy applications? And are people really noticing this (much less complaining)? Apparently Firefox moved its position as well. I certainly haven't noticed.

Get a larger screen? 😃 I think I need to adjust my "pointer speed" to make up for the extra real estate ... maybe I wouldn't complain so much. If I click on something at top+1000px with the sound off and my head buried in the screen, it's possible to "miss" the alert. I suppose if one wasn't paying any attention whatsoever it would be possible, too, so maybe it's a personal issue and not so widespread, but I doubt I'm the only person with such issues.

Let's keep in mind that many of our users aren't great technologists either ...

Weedpacket

On the sidetrack subject is a new blog series on FF's console.

Bonesnap

dalecosp;11033411 wrote:
Get a larger screen? 😃 I think I need to adjust my "pointer speed" to make up for the extra real estate ... maybe I wouldn't complain so much. If I click on something at top+1000px with the sound off and my head buried in the screen, it's possible to "miss" the alert. I suppose if one wasn't paying any attention whatsoever it would be possible, too, so maybe it's a personal issue and not so widespread, but I doubt I'm the only person with such issues.

My monitor isn't huge (23 inches) but it has a high resolution - 2048x1152. Most 27" monitors aren't even that high, except the really expensive ones. It sucks, because I love this monitor but it's not being made anymore. Everything is about 1080p nowadays once the LCD/LED TV industry melted with the monitor industry. But that aside... I still haven't noticed any difference. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. 😉

Weedpacket;11033513 wrote:
On the sidetrack subject is a new blog series on FF's console.

Does anyone actually use that instead of Firebug?