JavaScript-Heavy Web Development Approaches Conflict with Long-Term Performance Objectives
By
luu
3mo ago· 32 min readenOpinion
100/100
Golden Brown
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Sesame, salt, and substance. A flagship bake.
Score100TypeopinionSentimentnegative
Summary
This opinion piece argues that JavaScript-heavy web development approaches are fundamentally incompatible with long-term performance goals. The author, a web frontend developer, contends that shipping large quantities of JavaScript to browsers for execution in the critical path leads to performance issues that persist over time. The article advocates for favoring more server-centric approaches when possible, suggesting that heavy client-side JavaScript execution creates inherent performance limitations that cannot be fully optimized away.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledThe TL;DR is that in my experience the title is a correct statement the vast majority of the time, and we should favour more server-centric approaches instead, when possible.
I use this term to refer to any approach that relies on shipping large quantities of JS to the browser, for the browser to execute as an intrinsic part of using the web app, often in the critical path.
This post is a (very long) opinion piece, albeit one that I hope is somewhat substantiated by the accompanying anecdotes.
What I mean by 'JS-heavy approaches' - I use this term to refer to any approach that relies on shipping large quantities of JS to the browser.
I'm Sérgio, and I work with Web frontend code. Sometimes I write about it here.
I’m Sérgio, and I work with Web frontend code. Sometimes I write about it here.
