• JavaScript Frontend Speed is the Next Big Thing
  • Original author: Diop Makhtar
  • The Nuggets translation Project
  • Permanent link to this article: github.com/xitu/gold-m…
  • Translator: Z Zhaojin
  • Proofreader: Niayyy

When will there be a faster and stronger front-end development framework

Faster and lighter Web experiences are the trend, and development teams are redesigning front-end development solutions. This is not only because speed is an important metric for search engines to consider, but also because of the customer’s time value. Every one of us is well aware of the saying: Time is money. For Web development, it takes longer to build and load a Web application, which equals more money for both the Web application development team and the customer.

Most of the optimization space is on the client side, the browser side. Manipulating the DOM on the browser side and loading renders faster has become a high-priority issue, making it even more challenging for front-end development teams to build user interfaces.

Now, a big part of the slow web adoption comes from web page loading because of the growing number of third-party JavaScript scripts that browsers must load, compile, and execute for page interaction and easy development. Although JavaScript load times and browser execution times have been greatly reduced through compression, packaging, code splitting, and so on, there is room for improvement, certainly by reimagining the design and architecture of the front-end framework.

Realizing the importance of faster loading, developers of JavaScript front-end frameworks have been refactoring their project code to make it faster and lighter, and the new front-end frameworks are built to address these issues. The React development team, for example, has released a faster and lighter version called Preact, which is specifically designed to speed up development. For competitors like Svelte, it’s positioned to compete with this optimized version of the React development framework. The solution for faster Web applications and experiences is a two-way path, either by improving the existing front-end framework (Preact) or adopting a new one (Svelte, Inferno, etc.).

Many front-end engineers are exploring how to optimize network applications and reduce load times. Nilanth, for example, has been refactoring projects using newly released JavaScript front-end development frameworks such as Preact and testing them against development projects using older frameworks. Reading Nilanth’s test report, this difference is more important than those highlighted in the test article on React and Vue’s core metrics.

When evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of front-end development frameworks, developer productivity and user experience should be considered. Some make developers more productive, but perform poorly in terms of user experience. Some are difficult to achieve high productivity, but may be better in terms of user experience.

In my opinion, the user experience is more weighty and priority. But my product management and design skills instinctively speak out loud why I say software engineer instead of product manager and designer. Because I’m also talking about the design and management of a technical product, which involves application development efficiency and performance testing, all of which ultimately contribute to a better user experience.

Software engineers make decisions based on science, knowledge, data, and technology, and often decide which front-end development framework to use without a clear understanding of the framework’s performance and user experience. But why not use all the frameworks available to choose a solution and choose the most appropriate front-end development framework from the user’s perspective.

Thank you for reading!

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