Pro Javascript Performance

Performance is a hugely important area of web development. If your site runs slowly, users are going to leave, and the problem only grows as your site gets more popular. Pro JavaScript Performance gives you the tools you need to keep your sites smooth and responsive no matter how many users you have. Best practices are changing or becoming redefined continually because of changes and optimizations at the interpreter level, and differences in system configuration, and network speeds. This is exacerbated by the quickened release schedule that most browsers have adopted. Just as important as following best practices is the ability to measure your own performance, so that you can adjust as times change, and so that you can note the subtle nuances in your own code and define your own best practices by your own observations. This book gives you the tools to observe and track the performance of your web applications over time from multiple perspectives, so that you are always aware of, and can fix, all aspects of your performance.

Pro JavaScript RIA Techniques: Best Practices, Performance, and Presentation shows you how you can build JavaScript RIAs (rich Internet applications) with compelling user interfaces and great performance. With the best practices and optimization techniques you'll learn in this book, you can optimize performance without sacrificing a rich user interface. Using a combination of innovative ideas and intelligent use of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and plug–ins, this book shows you how to make decisions based on best web standard development practices and real–world browser data. Through practical examples, you'll see how to optimize both design and performance with an eye toward future enhancements and efficient maintenance. Starting with the essential principles and techniques of semantic markup, build efficient, responsive web applications based on web standard best practices and real–world experience. Apply practical techniques and see how to reuse examples of broadly relevant page components to improve the interface and performance of existing sites. Explore ways to push the boundaries of the possible with existing browser technology.

Pro PHP Application Performance will help you understand all the technologies and components which play a role in how well your applications run. When seconds can mean the difference between retaining a user and losing a user, it's important for all of us to have optimization as part of our project roadmap. But what components within your application should you analyze? How should you optimize? And how can you measure how well your application is performing? These are some of the questions that are answered in this book. Along the way you will also learn the "why" of optimizing. You’ll discover why you should optimize a specific component, why selecting one function over another is beneficial, and how to find and use the optimization tools available to the open source community. You’ll also learn how to deploy caching software as well as web server software. Pro PHP Application Performance will also teach you more advanced techniques, such as: • Using Xdebug to profile functions that are not running as efficiently as possible. • Comparing opcode executed by different PHP functions to narrow the search for functions that run efficiently. • Using strace to analyze Apache while your application is served to the user. Once you complete this book you will have a complete sense of where to start optimizing and, most importantly, have the tools which allow you to continue optimizing in other PHP applications going forward.

Pro JavaScript Development is a practical guide for front-end web developers who are experienced at building web pages with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and now wish to advance their JavaScript skills to a higher level. You will learn how to build large, well-structured, high quality, mobile-optimized web sites and apps, using the latest supported browser APIs, language features, and tools. This book teaches and shows you in practical hands-on terms how you can: Master the performance, reliability, stability, and code manageability of your JavaScript Understand and write efficient object-oriented and prototypal code, including full understanding of the ‘this’ keyword Boost the performance of your JavaScript code Architect large web applications using common design patterns Write high quality JavaScript code and avoid the pitfalls most likely to cause errors Manage code dependencies with AMD and RequireJS Develop for mobile, build games, and set up a real-time video chat using modern APIs such as Geolocation, Canvas and WebRTC Document your code as the professionals do Write command-line and web server applications in JavaScript with Node.js, Use build tools, such as Grunt and Gulp, to automate repetitive tasks and improve your development workflow Using real-world examples and applications that you'll build yourself, Pro JavaScript Development has unique, practical content that will make you a better JavaScript developer. Become a master of the latest JavaScript coding techniques and tools, and harness its best capabilities today.

Pro HTML5 Performance provides a practical guide to building extremely fast, light-weight and scalable websites using fully standards compliant techniques and best practices. It strikes a balance between imparting best-practice information for when you’re building ground up and instantly applicable techniques to help you solve issues with your existing projects. In addition to a wealth of tips, tricks and secrets you’ll find advice and code samples that elegantly layout the problems your facing and the best ways of solving them. By reading Pro HTML5 Performance you’ll squeeze every last ounch of performance from your code, giving your applications unrivalled speed and cost-efficiency.

Pro Data Visualization using R and JavaScript makes the R language approachable, and promotes the idea of data gathering and analysis. You'll see how to use R to interrogate and analyze your data, and then use the D3 JavaScript library to format and display that data in an elegant, informative, and interactive way. You will learn how to gather data effectively, and also how to understand the philosophy and implementation of each type of chart, so as to be able to represent the results visually. With the popularity of the R language, the art and practice of creating data visualizations is no longer the preserve of mathematicians, statisticians, or cartographers. As technology leaders, we can gather metrics around what we do and use data visualizations to communicate that information. Pro Data Visualization using R and JavaScript combines the power of the R language with the simplicity and familiarity of JavaScript to display clear and informative data visualizations. Gathering and analyzing empirical data is the key to truly understanding anything. We can track operational metrics to quantify the health of our products in production. We can track quality metrics of our projects, and even use our data to identify bad code. Visualizing this data allows anyone to read our analysis and easily get a deep understanding of the story the data tells.

You may have definite ideas about writing code when working alone, but team development requires that everyone use the same approach. With the JavaScript practices in this book—including code style, programming tips, and automation—you will learn how to write maintainable code that other team members can easily understand, adapt, and extend. Author Nicholas Zakas assembled this collection of best practices as a front-end tech leader at Yahoo!, after completing his own journey from solo hacker to team player. He also includes rules recommended by other industry authorities. Use these tips and techniques to help your team set aside individual preferences and function at a higher level. Establish specific code conventions for your team Use tools such as JSLint and JSHint to keep your team on track Adopt style guidelines, such as basic formatting, to help your team produce uniform code Apply several programming practices to solve problems and improve code quality Create an automated JavaScript build system using a variety of utilities Integrate browser-based JavaScript testing with tools such as the YUI Test Selenium Driver

If you're like most developers, you rely heavily on JavaScript to build interactive and quick-responding web applications. The problem is that all of those lines of JavaScript code can slow down your apps. This book reveals techniques and strategies to help you eliminate performance bottlenecks during development. You'll learn how to improve execution time, downloading, interaction with the DOM, page life cycle, and more. Yahoo! frontend engineer Nicholas C. Zakas and five other JavaScript experts—Ross Harmes, Julien Lecomte, Steven Levithan, Stoyan Stefanov, and Matt Sweeney—demonstrate optimal ways to load code onto a page, and offer programming tips to help your JavaScript run as efficiently and quickly as possible. You'll learn the best practices to build and deploy your files to a production environment, and tools that can help you find problems once your site goes live. Identify problem code and use faster alternatives to accomplish the same task Improve scripts by learning how JavaScript stores and accesses data Implement JavaScript code so that it doesn't slow down interaction with the DOM Use optimization techniques to improve runtime performance Learn ways to ensure the UI is responsive at all times Achieve faster client-server communication Use a build system to minify files, and HTTP compression to deliver them to the browser