WebAssembly is a way of taking code written in programming languages other than JavaScript and running that code in the browser. When you’re talking about WebAssembly, the apples to apples comparison is with JavaScript. With WebAssembly, it is possible to run code on the web faster. There are a number of reasons why WebAssembly code runs faster than its JavaScript equivalent, but it is useful to compare the two, so you can understand the potential impact that WebAssembly will have.
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In this article, Jeremy Wagner will teach you everything about server push, from how it works to the problems it solves. Server push allows you to send site assets to the user before they’ve even asked for them. It’s an elegant way to achieve the performance benefits of HTTP/1 optimization practices such as inlining, but without the drawbacks that come with that practice. Jeremy will also show you how to use it, how to tell if it’s working, and its impact on performance. Let’s begin!
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Imagine an archaic, alien workflow, with ancient tooling, and none of those things you love about the web. How would your career be affected? As a web developer, not only do you already possess all of the skills to make great modern desktop apps, but thanks to powerful new APIs at your disposal, the desktop is actually where your skills can be leveraged the most. In this article, Adam Lynch will look at the development of desktop applications using NW.js and Electron, the ups and downs of building one and living with one, using one code base for the desktop and the web, and more.
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Node.js has helped to bring uniformity to software development. Writing command line tools has also become easier than ever before because of Node.js. Tools such as Yeoman ask for runtime inputs that eventually help you to customize a project’s configuration as well. Some generators in Yeoman help you to deploy a project in your production environment. That is exactly what you are going to learn today. In this tutorial, Nihar Sawant will develop a command line application that accepts a CSV file of customer information, and using the SendGrid API, he will send emails to them.
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If our websites don’t enable users to accomplish the key tasks they come to do, we’ve failed them. We should do everything in our power to ensure our websites function under even the harshest of scenarios, but at the same, we can’t expect our users to have the exact same experience in every browser, on every device. Because none of the solutions Aaron Gustafson found actually complied with the law in either spirit or reality, he opted to roll his own robust solution.
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JavaScript module bundling has been around for a while. RequireJS had its first commits in 2009, then Browserify made its debut, and since then several other bundlers have spawned across the Internet. Among that group, webpack has jumped out as one of the best. If you’re not familiar with it, in this article, Joseph Zimmerman will help you get started with this powerful tool.
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Wondering how to get started with the Web Speech API? If you’re unfamiliar, this API gives you (the developer) the ability to voice-enable your website in two directions: listening to your users via the SpeechRecognition interface and talking back to them via the SpeechSynthesis interface. In this article, Aaron Gustafson guides you through this experimental API and covers everything you need to know to help you get a better understanding of how it works.
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In this article, Lea Verou explains what an HTML API is, why they’re useful, and which important lesson developers can learn from them. Keep reading to find out how to design a good one. You might be wondering, “All HTML and CSS authors know JavaScript, right?” Wrong. Take a look at the results of following poll.
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The rise of JavaScript frameworks such as React, Ember and recently Angular 2, the effort of the W3C to standardize a web-native component system, pattern libraries and style guides being considered the “right way” to build web applications, and many other things have illuminated this revolution.
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Even though the new Service Worker API allows you to cache away all of your website’s assets for an almost instant subsequent load, like when meeting someone new, the first impression is what counts. If the first load takes more than 3 seconds, more than 53% of all users will drop off. There are ways to mitigate this problem of a slow first load, but you can only get so far with this strategy, and you have to employ, or be, a front-end performance wizard. So, if an almost instant first load is fundamentally at odds with a native-like app experience, what can we do? In this article, Paul Bakaus will show you the way.
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