JavaScript frustration

Advisory: Whining. Also, technobabble.

I really, really hate developing in JavaScript. And the basic reason is not that the language is butt-ugly (though it is); it's that when you make a mistake, it's so hard to find it because the tools are so primitive.

I'm almost certain I remember that browsers used to give you error messages when you screwed up your JavaScript. They were near-useless ones that said "Syntax error in line 12", but at least, if you could locate what your browser thought was line 12, you had some chance of fixing it.

I'm using the much-lauded Firebug in Firefox. Yes, it's useful, it shows you a lot of what's going on, but if I mistype something in my JavaScript so that I have an unmatched bracket or something, does it tell me where? Does it hell.

Instead, it just silently stops working. I then have to flounder around, more or less randomly commenting bits out, until I figure out where the problem is and fix it.

Right now, something that was working yesterday has stopped working and I can't for the life of me figure out why. I click the button and nothing happens, where yesterday good things happened.

Stupid JavaScript.