Computer languages like Python and C++ that are rapidly gaining a lot of acceptance among developers, but JavaScript still remains strong. The Majority of top tier IT firms engage with a variety of computer languages, but JavaScript remains the main contender. Although JavaScript is known for causing sluggishness, it is largely favored for creating interactive websites and single page apps.
JavaScript has its perks – you can design the fanciest websites for clients, navigation and drop down menus are convenient, browser experience is efficient, it is simpler to implement and as a whole, versatile. Several websites have a front end and back end completely created using JavaScript and they work completely fine. Then there are the ones with too much images and animation, which take ages to load. It just takes a lot of extra effort to make your JavaScript run smoothly.
Too much JavaScript not only stretches out the launch time of websites, but also causes SEO problems. Google prefers to pick up ‘texts’ rather than ‘images’. At the end of the day lesser users will find your site and those who do, will probably disappear before it has finished downloading.
Coding with excessive JavaScript may not appear too problematic on a Desktop computer, but the same version of the website fails to be displayed on a mobile device. The reason being that most of the content is not usable on a mobile so the Search Engine chooses to discard it rather than taking a risk. A reasonable solution is to create a lighter mobile version that only offers partial features.
The Average User Suffers
The majority of developers using bulks of JavaScripts in their apps claim that no issues were encountered during tests or after, on the devices they used. These devices they talk about are actually high-end (and latest) cellular phones and computers, owned by less than 25% of the total mobile-using population.
The average phone will respond about 10 seconds late compared to a high-end one. If we take into account cheaper phones ($100 and less) + outdated ones, their response time will be delayed beyond 30s.
When users visit an app, a lot of data is sent to their side. This includes files and scripts;. 80 to 90% of this data does not even contribute to user experience. 320 kilobytes of Compressed JavaScript can translate to about 1 Megabyte of script that the browser needs to process. It will take awhile for the full webpage to load on an average phone considering the median internet speed accessible around the globe. Many websites send down more than 1 Megabyte which does no favors to them or the end user.
Solutions:
- Identify unused code and remove it (you might be shipping entire libraries for no apparent reason)
- Code Splitting – Rather than transferring bundles, send out small amounts of code at a time that are enough to enable visuals of a single page being viewed.