Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by pdimitar 816 days ago
Ohhh, I like this is a lot! Will use it!

Any unimpressed commenters willing to point any defects? To me this looks like the equivalent of compiling C to super-optimized assembly and is definitely doing things that I wouldn't want to do myself.
1 comments
rthnbgrredf 816 days ago
I don't know if we are on the right track if we have to ship "super optimized assembly" for HTML and CSS. I think we should be able to write the most simple and straightforward HTML and CSS and the Browser on all devices should just render it fine.

If we really have to ship super optimized assembly, then I would completely skip HTML and CSS altogether and just ship highly optimized web assembly and let developers use whatever language they want.

link
pdimitar 815 days ago
> I don't know if we are on the right track if we have to ship "super optimized assembly" for HTML and CSS

You know, I don't disagree. In fact I am 100% with you, it's just that we have to work with the realities presented in front of us. I'd think that nowadays we (as in, the general bigger tech community) know how would we do HTML+CSS much better from scratch but this is not ever happening -- I think we all know it.

So the next best thing in my view is (when it comes to generating static pages, that is, not sure about how viable this tool would be if you put it in the pipeline to improve all your dynamically-generated HTML -- it has to be hyper-optimized in order for it to not get in the way; having an nginx/Caddy plugin could also work):

1. Write Markdown or something else that's easier on the eyes and fingers;

2. Write your own CSS or use a theme from your SSG software;

3. Generate the HTML with your SSG software;

4. (NEW STEP) Run it through JamPack;

5. Deploy.

Personally as a techie I want my pages to have 100/100 lightweight / speedy / small score. That includes things like not loading images until they enter the viewport, that includes using all sorts of OS- / browser-specific hackery for faster loading, it includes the fastest time to first contentful paint... that includes everything that can be used in terms of tricks, in fact.

So again, I get your point and I really wish we lived in that reality but at one point I stopped believing that we ever will so I am trying to settle for the second best thing.

link