You know, that panel of tools that allows you to do stuff like inspect the DOM and see network requests. How do the companies that make them refer to them?
- Chrome calls them DevTools.
- Edge calls them DevTools.
- Firefox calls them Developer Tools.
- Safari calls it the Web Inspector.
I think it’s somewhat safe to generically refer to them as DevTools. Safari is the only browser that doesn’t use that term, but I imagine even die-hard Safari users will know what you mean.
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- Chrome
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- Safari
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- Firefox
I used to call mine “FireBug”. I miss FireBug. Now that I use Chrome, I have to type into the console instead of using FireFinder, and I still can’t add temporary CSS to a page without a separate add-on. (“Live CSS Editor”)
Also, in Safari, the web inspector is under the Developer menu and in their website all these tools are called Web Development Tools
Just some logic: If the Dev in DevTools is for Developer, then why not refer to them as Developer Tools (as Firefox does)? DevTools doesn’t seem to be a generic description but a corporate word (like DTools, DevKit or WebInspect would be). These are tools for web developers, ergo developer(s’) tools. [“Web Inspector” disqualifies itself because these little instruments are way more capable then just to inspect the web]
Aside from that, of course DevTools is shorter and will be understood be everybody it concerns.
PS: Look at the title of this post how these tools also could be referred to (“development tools”).
Safari calls it web inspector – cool enough!
I like that rather Dev tools.
“Dev tools” is so generic that it depends upon the context (of the conversation) being a browser. For example, some newbie could ask what do you use for dev (or development) tools and I would answer maybe what I use for a text editor, ftp, etc… I’ve probably referred to them as dev tools from time to time, but mostly I say “inspect it” or “bring up the inspector” to get someone to bring up the dev tools frame/window because when you right-click, you choose “Inspect” or “Inspect Element.” This also depends upon the browser being the context, but no one is going to ask you what Inspector do you use, unless it’s within browser context already, like “which browser has the best Inspector?”