A Sexier Safari with Safari Source
I’ve recently made the switch from Firefox to Safari. Ever since Safari 3 was released, I’ve found it harder and harder to justify the speed issues with Firefox on Mac OS, and as someone who doesn’t really surf the web anymore, I have little use for the extensions outside of a development (Web Developer and Firebug are essential for me) environment.
Overall, I’m very satisfied. Safari is the fastest browser I’ve ever used, it’s find/search function is beyond reproach, and it has that sexy look of Mac OS. The only problem? Viewing source code is awful. Compare this, from Safari:
WIth this, from Firefox:
It’s not hard to figure out which one is easier to read (it’s Firefox!).
Viewing Source
As a website designer, I look at source code A LOT; even during casual browsing. It’s part learning (new techniques), part respect (you’d be surprised how much work goes into a really great website), and part horror (I’m an elitist; bad code makes me shudder). But, also as a designer, I like things to look and work great; Safari’s view source ironically does neither.
Sexist Analogy
The best analogy I can come up with is x-ray specs. Imagine having the ability to see through anyones clothes and check out what’s going on underneath. For the sake of this analogy, you can’t see full nudity (that would require access to server-side languages), but you can see underwear.
Underwear’s important. Even though other people don’t usually see it, you know it’s there. A guy on a date will be more confident wearing nice boxer-briefs than tighty whities that same way a woman with a sexy matching set feels more confident than someone in granny panties. There’s something about nice underwear that shows a real control of style and everyone knows that the most appreciated things are those that usually go unappreciated.
So viewing a website’s source is like checking out a hot girl’s underwear. But when you’re using Safari, they’re all wearing unmatching granny panties. I don’t want to look at that. I don’t even understand why that happens. Why would I continue to look at Ms. Granny Pants when Ms. Black Lace is standing next to her?
Enter Safari Source
Safari Source is a plugin that adds syntax highlighting. It’s like Safari goes to a lingerie store and comes back looking like this:
And that’s just awesome.
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