The same situation is in
Version 59.0.3070.0 (Official Build) canary (64-bit)

My guess is that this is a feature (perhaps not completely implemented, but still a feature). Probably in order to distinguish the logged types.
I would expect that any combination of strings and non-strings would yield quotes, not just if it is not the first.

Logged types are already distinguished by color(blue for number and black for string). Quotes are redundant here. And other browsers don't have such 'feature'.

#3 - the fact that other browser do not have such a feature means nothing. The feature set, designs and decisions differ between the browsers.

They may seem redundant to you (and this may actually be a bug), but for me, personally, they are not redundant. While colors are distinguishing, I almost never memorize their meaning.

Quotes are also confusing. For example, this commands

console.log('"str"')
console.log(0, 'str')

produce very similar outputs, but their string arguments are different! So now, if we look in console output, we have to think what is shown actually. If string is in quotes, then, if it is black, string itself is in quotes, else(if string is red), Chrome added quotes. Very unhandy.

Even more confusing example:

console.log('0', '"str"');
console.log(0, 'str');

Able to reproduce the issue, but it seems more like a feature request, untriaged it so that it gets addressed.

Thanks,

Thank you for the report.  Your example in comment #6 does illustrate an interesting case where unhighlighted text matches the highlighted text, since console adds the black quotes.

I'm inclined to keep the red strings in quotes.  Strings are red to distinguish them easily, while objects are not.  Without the black quotes, it's hard to tell whether printed quotes are part of the string or not.

Another example: `console.log([], "abc.com", "def.com")`
clearly separates two printed urls that would have blended together otherwise.

Maybe there are other cases that I'm not aware of?  pfeldman wdyt?

Why don't you want to make it like it is in Firefox? It just shows strings in orange color and without quotes. String can be first argument, or not first, but it just shown in orange color and without quotes. Very clearly.

In example `console.log([], "abc.com", "def.com")` URLs are not blended, because they are separated by space.

And in Chrome, Objects and Arrays are easily distinguished by little 'expand me' triangle before them.

Deleted: Firefox.png 12.7 KB

	Firefox.png 12.7 KB View Download

There are two modes of operation in console logging:
1) message format
2) list of objects

- In the message format mode, the first (or the only) argument is the message template. It should be printed with no quotes in this mode, all other parameters should be formatted into the message format, the remaining ones should be printed as in the 'list' mode.
- In the list mode, values should be printed by value. String values are quoted.


> console.log(1, 'str1', 'str2')
1 "str1" "str2"

> console.log('str0', 'str1', 'str2')
"str0" "str1" "str2"

> console.log('%s', 'str1', 'str2')
str1 "str2"


We should quote string values because it is essential to express where the string begins or ends. Otherwise ambiguity:

> console.log('str0', 'str1 str2')
str0 str1 str2

> console.log('str0 str1', 'str2')
str0 str1 str2

I am not sure what you mean by "message template". Is it https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/console/console-write#string_substitution_and_formatting by any chance?
If so, can you detect whether something actually needs substitution (contains %[sidfoOc]) and if not, treat it like a non-message-template argument?