What happened to console.log in IE8?

console.log is only available after you have opened the Developer Tools (F12 to toggle it open and closed). Funny thing is that after you've opened it, you can close it, then still post to it via console.log calls, and those will be seen when you reopen it. I'm thinking that is a bug of sorts, and may be fixed, but we shall see.

I'll probably just use something like this:

function trace(s) {
  if ('console' in self && 'log' in console) console.log(s)
  // the line below you might want to comment out, so it dies silent
  // but nice for seeing when the console is available or not.
  else alert(s)
}

and even simpler:

function trace(s) {
  try { console.log(s) } catch (e) { alert(s) }
}

It's worth noting that console.log in IE8 isn't a true Javascript function. It doesn't support the apply or call methods.

Here is my "IE please don't crash"

typeof console=="undefined"&&(console={});typeof console.log=="undefined"&&(console.log=function(){});

It works in IE8. Open IE8's Developer Tools by hitting F12.

>>console.log('test')
LOG: test