I’m done with my copy of Even Faster Web Sites.
It’s definitely a book worth reading if you’re well into web performance optimization and want to step even further when all simpler optimizations don’t bring any more improvements.
JavaScript sections from Ajaxians and Nicholas Zakas are quite interesting but definitely for most complex 2.0 apps with tons of JS and front-end processing.
Flushing early and CSS selector performance are important too, Steve was talking about it at Web 2.0 @ SF – CSS is a bit beyond my comprehension unfortunately, but flush is easy to comprehend for those who made at lease a single IO app, especially networked.
One thing among tools – in my opinion, WebPageTest.org was given less credit then it deserves – it’s connection view (next to the waterfall) and content breakdown chart as well as empty/primed dual run definitely bring it high in the “packet sniffer” section and not only “analytic tools” section. And I agree with Steve that it’s availability through the web give it a huge value in the eyes of developers and business decision makers. It’s very possible though that that section of the book was done when most of these features were added.
If you didn’t read Even Faster Web Sites, you probably should. As well as its prequel – High Performance Web Sites.
I loved part I but won’t have time for part II for awhile. I overloaded my Sony Reader with too many other books already. Did he update the old information from book I first or only cover different areas?
He didn’t update much but covered JavaScript stuff heavily. What did you expect to be updated?