Andy Li's Blog

AppleInsider | IE8′s JavaScript performance lags well behind Safari, Chrome

Above is a recent article on the JavaScript performance of the next-generation web browsers/rendering engines, including IE8, Firefox 3.1, Webkit r40220, Chrome 2.0.158.0 and Opera 10.

From the test result in the article, we can see that the performance of JS varies a lot across the browsers (up to 1:10). This make developing cross-platform web apps using AJAX much more difficult since you need to make it as lightweight as possible.

Developing in Flash would not face this problem because swf content runs inside the virtual machine. Although it has been claimed that Flash content runs relatively slower under Mac, but the different is not noticeable in most cases. And the preformance of ActionScript (3) is A LOT higher than JavaScript in any browser.

When developing large scale CPU hungry web apps, you better use Flash instead of AJAX. (for other stuff, AJAX may be better, or a lot better…)

PS. I’ve googled around for some benchmarks on AS/JS to prove my point, but seems that there is no recent benchmark that aims for this (only a 2007 one). Hopefully I will have time to do it by myself in this week.

AppleInsider | IE8's JavaScript performance lags well behind Safari, Chrome Above is a recent article on the JavaScript performance of the next-generation web browsers/rendering engines, including IE8, Firefox 3.1, Webkit r40220, Chrome 2.0.158.0 and Opera 10. From the test result in the article, we can see that the performance of JS varies a lot across the browsers (up to 1:10). This make developing cross-platform web apps using AJAX much more difficult since you need to make it as lightweight as possible. Developing in Flash would not face this problem because swf content runs inside the virtual machine. Although it has been claimed that Flash content runs relatively slower under Mac, but the different is not noticeable in most cases. And the preformance of ActionScript (3) is A LOT higher than JavaScript in any browser. When developing large scale CPU hungry web apps, you better use Flash instead of AJAX. (for other stuff, AJAX may be better, or a lot better...) PS. I've googled around for some benchmarks on AS/JS to prove my point, but seems that there is no recent benchmark that aims for this (only a 2007 one). Hopefully I will have time to do it by myself in this week.

I do not know if my idea have already been used somewhere. Anyway I would share the idea here to see if it can inspire anybody.

Nowadays destop apps and web-based softwares (or SaaS or anything similar) are emerging. Google works hard to let its docs, reader to work offline. Many innovative web-based apps are coming, like Aviary, the web-based design tools. And there are desktop version of Twitter, eBay, Flickr. Netbooks are targeted to serf the net, which is making use of SaaS to compensate netbooks’ low computing power. And there are  already people asking for a web-based OS.

But it is hard to put all the things in the cloud, at least it needs a lot of money to get that storage to store all your music and video… And the pivate stuff, transferring through the Internet is already taking risk. So how to make them avalible to you anywhere like SaaS?

The answer is a web interface of a software. It isn’t a new thing since VLC Player, eMule, Winamp (slightly different approach) and possibly more softwares already have this function. The software itself has a build-in web server, that make you access the service from anywhere by typing the computer’s ip address. And yup, it is like telnet that let you control the computer and the files, but even more like remote desktop that give you a better interface, and with less bandwidth dependency.

My idea is one step forward, not only to provide a web interface but also a web service, like some REST API. This can let developer make their own web interface and host the interface elsewhere, further reduce bandwidth dependency. It can also let developers make some mash up, which is now between the desktop and the Internet but not only the Internet itself.

What we developer should do is to remember to provide such Internet accessible API when developing desktop software. And it is even better to draft a stanard for other developers.

I do not know if my idea have already been used somewhere. Anyway I would share the idea here to see if it can inspire anybody. Nowadays destop apps and web-based softwares (or SaaS or anything similar) are emerging. Google works hard to let its docs, reader to work offline. Many innovative web-based apps are coming, like Aviary, the web-based design tools. And there are desktop version of Twitter, eBay, Flickr. Netbooks are targeted to serf the net, which is making use of SaaS to compensate netbooks' low computing power. And there are  already people asking for a web-based OS. But it is hard to put all the things in the cloud, at least it needs a lot of money to get that storage to store all your music and video... And the pivate stuff, transferring through the Internet is already taking risk. So how to make them avalible to you anywhere like SaaS? The answer is a web interface of a software. It isn't a new thing since VLC Player, eMule, Winamp (slightly different approach) and possibly more softwares already have this function. The software itself has a build-in web server, that make you access the service from anywhere by typing the computer's ip address. And yup, it is like telnet that let you control the computer and the files, but even more like remote desktop that give you a better interface, and with less bandwidth dependency. My idea is one step forward, not only to provide a web interface but also a web service, like some REST API. This can let developer make their own web interface and host the interface elsewhere, further reduce bandwidth dependency. It can also let developers make some mash up, which is now between the desktop and the Internet but not only the Internet itself. What we developer should do is to remember to provide such Internet accessible API when developing desktop software. And it is even better to draft a stanard for other developers.

For this semester, I am attending the course “Web 2.0 Technologies” and I am required to blog things. The first post will come very soon! Stay tuned!

For this semester, I am attending the course "Web 2.0 Technologies" and I am required to blog things. The first post will come very soon! Stay tuned!