Top all-time · #1618
Tom Dale
Personal blog · tomdale.netprogrammingweb
Tom Dale's personal blog at tomdale.net covers programming and web. Since 2011, 44 different Hacker News readers have linked it 56 times, most often “Missing the Point of Server-side Rendered JavaScript Apps”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (17) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Tom Dale's posts, written as an Ember co-creator, on JavaScript frameworks, server-side rendering, progressive enhancement and build tooling.
- Recommended for · 4 comments
- One commenter said his post puts a point nicely and another said it explains the point really well; others said to read his posts on server-side rendering and h
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 17 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Missing the Point of Server-side Rendered JavaScript Apps6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2015-02-05
- Making the Jump: How Desktop-Era Frameworks Can Thrive on Mobile5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2017-06-29
- AMD is Not the Answer5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2012-01-17
- JavaScript Frameworks and Mobile Performance4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2015-11-16
- Evergreen Browsers3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-05-24
- Progressive Enhancement Is Dead3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-09-02
- Web frameworks are transforming from runtime libraries into optimizing compilers2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-09-06
- Tom Dale and Yehuda Katz's Pairing Setup2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-01-02
- Adventures in Microbenchmarking2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-07-16
- Open Source, Thick Skin2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-01-24
What Hacker News says?
Bundles might make sense, but one large blob that couldn't be parsed until it was finished loading would probably be a big step backward for responsiveness. Parallel downloads also help speed things up. Another interesting idea for JS-heavy sites is server-side pre rendering (yes, having the server generate HTML like the good old bad days) like Ember FastBoot http://tomdale.net/2015/02/youre-missing-the-point-of-ser…
Comment linking /2015/02/youre-missing-the-point-of-server-side-rendered-javascript-apps/
on “Google is banning Flash from its display ads”Submitted Web frameworks are transforming from runtime libraries into optimizing compilers as a story · 436 points
HN discussionYes, no one takes the time to research. Most popular does not equate to good. I took the time to do the research back in 2013 and found that Ember basically solves all the problems OP talks about. Tom Dale, one of the creators of Ember, blogged over a year ago [1] about how Ember has been around since the days of Backbone. As the years rolled on, other frameworks became obsolete, but Ember evolved (with sane upgrade…
Comment linking /2017/04/making-the-jump/
on “Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?”Submitted San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down as a story · 351 points
HN discussion> I think especially after your app gets to be a certain size, you are either writing your own framework, or fighting with the framework you chose at the beginning. I agree with this, but I end up at the opposite conclusion. This post about JavaScript frameworks [1] by Tom Dale puts it nicely: > I have heard from many developers who have told me that they accepted the argument that vanilla JavaScript or microlibrari…
Comment linking /2015/11/javascript-frameworks-and-mobile-performance/
on “Why I believe Rails is still relevant in 2019”Submitted Progressive Enhancement Is Dead as a story · 334 points
HN discussionAmazing work. Just read all of this: http://tomdale.net/2015/02/youre-missing-the-point-of-server... This is probably the thing I hate the most from client-side apps. Can't wait to test this and Angular 2 on production!
Comment linking /2015/02/youre-missing-the-point-of-server-side-rendered-javascript-apps/
on “Ember Fastboot”Submitted I’m Joining LinkedIn as a story · 248 points
HN discussionThis is an unnecessarily absolutist position. If HTML, CSS and JavaScript are a "near-perfect solution to a very complex, graphically interactive problem", then why did people come up with front-end frameworks in the first place? Because they're useful! Frontend developers aren't just cargo culting their architecture decisions; they're trying to finding that the benefits outweigh the downsides, particularly with com…
Comment linking /2015/11/javascript-frameworks-and-mobile-performance/
on “Cycle.js – A functional and reactive JavaScript framework for predictable code”Submitted Best Practices Exist For A Reason as a story · 248 points
HN discussionJavaScript needs a build system: https://tomdale.net/2017/04/making-the-jump/
Comment linking /2017/04/making-the-jump/
on “Time for Makefiles to Make a Comeback”Submitted My iOS 7 Wishlist as a story · 147 points
HN discussionhttp://tomdale.net/2012/01/amd-is-not-the-answer/
Comment linking /2012/01/amd-is-not-the-answer/
on “Can you help me understand the benefit of require.js?”Submitted Tom Dale and Yehuda Katz's Pairing Setup as a story · 88 points
HN discussionAnd here is Tom Dale's reply: http://tomdale.net/2015/11/javascript-frameworks-and-mobile-...
Comment linking /2015/11/javascript-frameworks-and-mobile-performance/
on “The Cost of Frameworks”Submitted Missing the Point of Server-side Rendered JavaScript Apps as a story · 86 points
HN discussionSo they are building a server-side app to deliver a usable first-load experience with HTML and CSS, while the JavaScript loads in and runs, and until the JavaScript runs, all the links work like normal anchors. Sounds like Progressive enhancement [1]. [1] http://tomdale.net/2013/09/progressive-enhancement-is-dead/
Comment linking /2013/09/progressive-enhancement-is-dead/
on “Missing the Point of Server-side Rendered JavaScript Apps”Submitted Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of JavaScript Frameworks as a story · 58 points
HN discussionI think the internet really exacerbates the problem though. It's one thing if PowerPoint animations don't work well on an old computer, but with network requests it's like people don't even realize that something that happens quickly on localhost will hit a lot more latency in the real world. I like this explanation (somewhat down the page) of why Twitter changed in 2012 from a single-page app to more server-side re…
Comment linking /2015/02/youre-missing-the-point-of-server-side-rendered-javascript-apps/
on “I Was Wrong About Offline”Submitted AMD is Not the Answer as a story · 39 points
HN discussionFor sure. I was always uncomfortable with JS frameworks that used markup with no content from the server. In my professional experience I've also found that developers underestimate how slow Ajax requests are in real world scenarios. I wrote some comments on this when I started learning React, just gonna screenshot them instead of pasting: http://i.imgur.com/XSnCqjK.png Two great articles I reference in this tutoria…
Comment linking /2015/02/youre-missing-the-point-of-server-side-rendered-javascript-apps/
on “Rendering React without browser JavaScript”Submitted Mozilla’s Add-on Policy Is Hostile to Open Source as a story · 23 points
HN discussionThis might be worth a read. Tom Dale wrote about his setup. There's a reference to how Pivotal Labs is setup too. I prefer the later if you can afford it. http://tomdale.net/2012/01/tildes-pairing-setup/
Comment linking /2012/01/tildes-pairing-setup/
on “Pair Programming Considered Harmful?”Submitted Where is the web’s Loren Brichter? as a story · 21 points
HN discussionTo be fair here's the opposite view: http://tomdale.net/2013/09/progressive-enhancement-is-dead/
Comment linking /2013/09/progressive-enhancement-is-dead/
on “JavaScript Disabled: Should I Care?”Submitted JavaScript Frameworks and Mobile Performance as a story · 11 points
HN discussionIs it really that bold? The popularity of front-end frameworks has exploded in the past few years, and you would be hard pressed to find a team building an application without one. Clearly there's a reason people are making this choice. This article by Tom Dale (one of the creators of Ember) explains it really well: http://tomdale.net/2015/11/javascript-frameworks-and-mobile-... Key quote: "As apps grow, you tend to…
Comment linking /2015/11/javascript-frameworks-and-mobile-performance/
on “Unnecessarily Complicating Front-End Development To Feel Like A Smarter Person”Submitted You're Missing the Point of Server-Side Rendered JavaScript Apps as a story · 6 points
HN discussionIt is unfortunately that this site doesn't do Isomorphic JavaScript justice because it is actually a very powerful concept and is being more widely adopted than indicated. First, as far as adoption, some of the other comments mention React, but Ember is also moving toward Isomorphic JS (see http://tomdale.net/ ). I have been working on something similar for AngularJS. As far as the benefits or why you would care, th…
Comment linking /
on “Isomorphic JavaScript”Submitted Evergreen Browsers as a story · 4 points
HN discussion
