Ask HN: Do you still use “view source” to see how web pages work? - andrewstuart
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core-questions
It's been a while. Time was this was an excellent way to learn, but now
everything is minified and obscure and outputted by compilers to make CSS and
Javascript out of things that aren't, and all of the idiomatic ways of working
with things (replete with limitations) have been replaced with abstracted ways
of working with this (ostensibly with fewer limitations).

It's clear to me that this is a shit sandwich, and what we should really do is
start replacing HTML/CSS/JS with a new app development mechanism that embraces
the significantly refined requirements we have now over our 1990s
predecessors.

Ideally the end result is as easy to build and take apart as the old web used
to be.

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davismwfl
Sure, I do it quite often. Chrome will format the code if it is minified so
that is easy, and you can quickly jump around and see what is happening. If
you know your front end frameworks you can pretty quickly tell what they are
using and how it is all put together even when code has been obfuscated.

I definitely use view source when debugging my own code or testing layout
changes I am playing with since it is easy to still adjust the css and view
the changes etc. The javascript console is valuable too.

I guess for me it is usually less about finding out how things work now so
much as debugging an issue or finding a vulnerability. I have found a number
of vulnerabilities using view source on products out of China that have built
in web servers, like ip cams and the such.

*edit -- When I think of view source I think of the complete dev tools, not just the single "view source" tab.

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indentit
These days I tend to use the built in element inspector instead to view live
state, unless I specifically want to see the original state - from before JS
got involved :)

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c-smile
Quite frequently to get URL of particular image on the page or to get an ID of
element to make precise reference URL.

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dewey
It’s less “view source” and more the network tab in the inspector but I’m
using that one a lot to find APIs to use.

