IE, javascript, console.log() and absolute frustration

UN-FREAKING-BELEIVABLE ! ! !

I just lost a night out of my life (and at my age that is becoming a significantly big deal) tracking down a high-priority problem with the website of the company I work for.  Why?  Because Internet Explorer Exploder is such an incredible LOAD OF C**P ! ! !

IE9 is only browser out there that implements console.log() in the following inane manner: you can make a call to console.log if, and only if, you have the developer tools open!!!!  Otherwise it FAILS.  FAILS. 

For those of you who may not work in javascript, it is analogous to saying that you can only write to a file if you also have the file open in an editor so you can see what is being written.  No editor open?  Then your write fails.   You think I’m exagerating or making a bad comparison.  No – I’m not.  That is as direct and as comparable an analogy as can possibly exist.  That is how incredibly stupid this is.

I have always said, and I continue to say, that there is one and only one use for Internet Exploder: on a system where Windows has just been installed and the user does not have a thumb-drive handy – then IE can be used to download a copy of Firefox or Chrome.  That’s it.  If you use it for ANY other purpose, then you deserve what you get!