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What's old is new again

What's old is new again
By Duncan Mackenzie • Issue #8 • View online
Lately people have been discovering new ways of doing web development that feel like a throwback to what we used to just call the web. Hand editing HTML for every page of a large site is unlikely to come back, but static site generators have shown us that simple can be really fast. Client-side rendering of web pages is great for an email client but has a lot of issues for a regular site, so ‘server-side rendering’ (SSR) is re-invented, even though rendering dynamic HTML on the server and sending it down has been around since ‘cgi-bin’. Web development feels like a pendulum, we discover something new and swing too far in that direction, before swinging back to something closer to center.

Do as little work as you can
One of the keys to scalability in software systems is to reduce the amount of work you do per action. On the web, caching and pre-processing are two great ways to get to as close to zero work per request as possible.
www.duncanmackenzie.net  •  Share
Why simplicity? Choosing a web architecture
Why simplicity? Choosing a web architecture
When you are deciding how to build a new web experience, this post provides a great explanation of why you should go as simple as possible. Add complexity if absolutely needed.
18f.gsa.gov  •  Share
Ryan Florence
*writes some HTML by hand in an index.html file*

"Look at me ~pre~ rendering this HTML..."
Performance-testing the Google I/O site
I’ve linked to Jake Archibald’s series on performance testing various F1 racing sites before, but in a surprising change of direction he took at look at the performance of the Google I/O event pages. There are good times to use a lot of JavaScript, but a content focused site is not one of them.
jakearchibald.com  •  Share
The modern way to build that delivers better performance
If all this talk about static sites has you intrigued, this site is a great starting point. Check out this talk on how the technology and field has evolved since the name was first coined. This article features my favorite one-line tip that should be kept in mind for all development: The goal is to do the right work at the right times — with a preference for doing as much work as possible ahead of time.
jamstack.org  •  Share
The basic flow of Docs.Microsoft.com
The basic flow of Docs.Microsoft.com
Docs is not a static site (code runs when a request hits the server for one of our pages), but a lot of the work of building the page is done ahead of time and everything is heavily cached to gain many of the benefits of a JAMSTACK system.
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A general and not-at-all related article I think you'd like
This article by Joel Califa talks about the value of small improvements that can create significant benefit. It’s a great discussion of the topic, but read it carefully, he points out that many of the best ‘low effort, high impact’ features will not be found in your issue tracking or ‘suggestion box’.
“Now, your first instinct might be to open up your user feedback channels and start prioritizing issues. I’d caution against this.”
joelcalifa.com  •  Share
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Duncan Mackenzie

In each newsletter, I'll share a set of links related to web development and software engineering. As the editor, my opinions are going to influence the topics and tone of this material, so expect to see lots of information on web performance and general topics around working in a software engineering team! Check it out and let me know what you think at https://twitter.com/duncanma

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