On this episode Nik Molnar and I discuss web performance with Nik Molnar.This isn't just another YSlow talk, things have evolved and I learned quite a bit from this talk so hopefully you will as well.

To subscribe to the podcast, please use the links below:

Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes

Click Here to Subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed)

Show Notes:

Nik Molnar's Blog

Great site for performance tools mentioned:

http://perf-tooling.today/

Nik's popular open source project for .NET web applications Glimpse.

What CSS triggers the browser to paint:

http://csstriggers.com/

Full Transcript

Craig McKeachie: [0:00 ] On this episode, Nik Molnar and I discuss Web performance.

[0:03 ] [music]

Craig: [0:14 ] Welcome to the Front-End Developer Cast, the podcast that helps developers be awesome at building ambitious Web applications, whether you're a JavaScript ninja or you're just getting started. I'm your host, Craig McKeachie.

[0:27 ] Hi, everyone. My interview today is with Web performance expert, Nik Molnar. Let's get right to it. This isn't just another YSlow talk, though. Things are getting more evolved in the space, and I learned quite a bit from this talk. Hopefully, you will as well. Here it is.

[0:44 ] Hey, today, I'm lucky to have Nik Molnar with me. Hi, Nik. How are you doing?

Nik Molnar:   [0:47 ] I'm doing all right, Craig. How are you?

Craig: [0:48 ] Good. Thanks for coming on the show. Today, we're going to talk about Web performance, but why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself first?

Nik: [0:55 ] You covered my name already, so that's good.

Craig: [laughs] [0:57 ]

Nik: [0:57 ] We got the most fun thing out of the way.

Craig: [0:58 ] Did I say it right?

Nik: [0:59 ] You did. "Nik Molnar," you got it. I live in New York City. I've been there for about eight years, now. I've been doing Web development for 18 years.

[1:09 ] It's really all I've ever done with my life. I work for Redgate Software, working on Web performance tooling. I work on an open source tool, called Glimpse. I travel around the conference circuit in America and abroad espousing the virtues of Web performance.

Craig: [1:23 ] Awesome. That's a great topic. When you give your talks, how do you like to talk about Web performance? Do you have a way you can break it down? It's a big topic.

Nik: [1:32 ] I do. It's a big topic. I break it down in order of descending granularity, which I tell the people in my audience and the people that I work with when I consult, that you really want to focus on the biggest problems first. All too often, a developer might be comfortable in JavaScript or PHP, so that's the thing that they dive into, when it's not necessarily the thing that their users are having frustration with.

[1:56 ] Descending granularity means figure out where the pain points the app and the user are having, and focus on those first. With that blanket statement usually, moving things across the network are the biggest problems for performance. That's usually where I start. Then, I break it down into three other areas after that.

[2:15 ] With Web applications, I like to think of the way we interact with the Web in two phases. The first time you type the URL into the location bar and you hit enter, you're "installing an application."

[2:29 ] This is the installation phase. We think of that as the on- load thing. After that, the user is using the application. They're not necessarily going back to the server to get any more data or resources. Performance for the install experience and the usage experience, you handle those two things differently. That's how I break it up into those two areas with two subsets underneath each.

Craig: [2:53 ] I like that. Let's talk a little bit more about the network area. I read "High Performance Websites" by Steve Souders.