In general, these hacks were an attempt to recreate a given issue in a desktop browser and then debug with Chrome Developer Tools or a similar desktop toolkit. With a distinct lack of debugging tools, developers turned to a variety of hacks. For instance, a developer might shrink the size of the desktop browser’s window to test a responsive website or alter the user agent to spoof a particular mobile device.
Sure, you could get ahold of a device and perform a quick visual assessment, but what would you do after discovering a bug? In the early days of mobile, debugging was quite a challenge.
