Selenium webdriver

I would just leave it there, but learning to use webdriver, has been a bit like learning SQL . SQL is a missnomer in that it’s not a “language” per se, but more a structure and ruleset and a sideline procedural language. Nobody tells you this at the outset.

Webdriver is arguably the same problem, this week my greatest disappointment has been get_log("browser) , which is completely omitted in the Firefox geckodriver, and incorrectly implemented in Edge and Opera, and only functions marginally as documented in chromedriver. Nobody tells you this up front. They also never tell you that you do need JavaScript understanding to be able to read their terrible documentation.

My other big gripe is that so many basic timing programming related errors get posted to stackoverflow when people don’t get told exactly how complicate browsers are before they start automating them. Every time I look for help, I find lots of helpful answers given to questions, that should never have been asked. Questions often stemming from people using Selenium illegally to scrape files and pages from sites. Every time I answer these questions I wonder if I’m becoming complicit in a sweatshop crime-ring activity. It takes an inordinate amount of effort to get good at using this really great tool.

3 Likes