Thursday, April 26, 2012
Of Interest: Head.js @ headjs.com
Head.js is a neat concept.
In my foray into website design, I started out with HTML5 Boilerplate (more on that later). The "acceptable" ways to optimize page load times - not a huge issue for me right now, but I think it's best to develop good habits - include some strange things.
Strange as in "put all scripts right before the tag" and "minify everything" and "concatenate all external everything into single files". These are good things to do on production code, I guess, but they also have their own drawbacks. The main idea is to reduce HTTP requests and keep as much as possible cached for the end-user. If you have, say, [ Cycle ], and don't properly organize the code on your page, you can end up with some strange flashes of unstyled content (or FOUCs, for short). Those are no bueno and are killer for the end-user.
So you might consider loading all your scripts towards the top of your HTML file... but doing so (normally) stops anything else from loading. This extends what the user perceives as load time, and is thus unacceptable.
Enter head.js. The idea is that you can "load scripts in parallel but execute in order". Essentially, you can decrease load times by loading more than one script at a time while the page is loading, too - this decreases the "flashes" or wait times between pages and prevents scripts from "blocking" rendering processes.
It means that my already-slim handcrafted pages are slimmer and faster and better than before.
Or they will be once I finish implementing head.js across the board, anyway.
You can find head.js [ here ]. Neat stuff.
In my foray into website design, I started out with HTML5 Boilerplate (more on that later). The "acceptable" ways to optimize page load times - not a huge issue for me right now, but I think it's best to develop good habits - include some strange things.
Strange as in "put all scripts right before the tag" and "minify everything" and "concatenate all external everything into single files". These are good things to do on production code, I guess, but they also have their own drawbacks. The main idea is to reduce HTTP requests and keep as much as possible cached for the end-user. If you have, say, [ Cycle ], and don't properly organize the code on your page, you can end up with some strange flashes of unstyled content (or FOUCs, for short). Those are no bueno and are killer for the end-user.
So you might consider loading all your scripts towards the top of your HTML file... but doing so (normally) stops anything else from loading. This extends what the user perceives as load time, and is thus unacceptable.
Enter head.js. The idea is that you can "load scripts in parallel but execute in order". Essentially, you can decrease load times by loading more than one script at a time while the page is loading, too - this decreases the "flashes" or wait times between pages and prevents scripts from "blocking" rendering processes.
It means that my already-slim handcrafted pages are slimmer and faster and better than before.
Or they will be once I finish implementing head.js across the board, anyway.
You can find head.js [ here ]. Neat stuff.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Stuff I Like: CSS Prefixer @ appspot.com
[ http://cssprefixer.appspot.com/ ] is so useful for me right now.
Mainly because I'm still getting into this whole "web design" thing.
It takes your CSS input, adds in any of the missing prefixes (fixing cross-browser CSS3 compatibility).
Unrelated: I'm learning how to jQuery.
Mainly because I'm still getting into this whole "web design" thing.
It takes your CSS input, adds in any of the missing prefixes (fixing cross-browser CSS3 compatibility).
Unrelated: I'm learning how to jQuery.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Stuff I Like: Going Quantum
For the record, I should admit that if you don't like gritty electronic music, this isn't for you. I enjoy it, though:
Their channel is available [ here ].
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Stuff I Like: Pixlr @ Pixlr.com
[ http://pixlr.com/ ].
Basically, one of the best alternatives I've found to editing photos. I've had the good fortune of learning Photoshop CS3, 4, and 5 at school - I don't have the liberty of running a personal copy, and I find that GIMP offers a different approach - fully featured, but dense and difficult (for me) to intuit.
Pixlr is a great alternative and a slick one, at that - especially for something (so far as I can tell) free.
Check it out.
I bet this would come in handy for chromebooks (or other glorified internet browsing devices).
(similar in some respects to picnik)
Basically, one of the best alternatives I've found to editing photos. I've had the good fortune of learning Photoshop CS3, 4, and 5 at school - I don't have the liberty of running a personal copy, and I find that GIMP offers a different approach - fully featured, but dense and difficult (for me) to intuit.
Pixlr is a great alternative and a slick one, at that - especially for something (so far as I can tell) free.
Check it out.
I bet this would come in handy for chromebooks (or other glorified internet browsing devices).
(similar in some respects to picnik)
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