JavaScript and the Netflix User Interface

CowboyRobot writes Alex Liu is a senior UI engineer at Netflix and part of the core team leading the migration of Netflix.com to Node.js. He has an article at ACM's Queue in which he describes how JavaScript is used at Netflix. "With increasingly more application logic being shifted to the browser, developers have begun to push the boundaries of what JavaScript was originally intended for. Entire desktop applications are now being rebuilt entirely in JavaScript—the Google Docs office suite is one example. Such large applications require creative solutions to manage the complexity of loading the required JavaScript files and their dependencies. The problem can be compounded when introducing multivariate A/B testing, a concept that is at the core of the Netflix DNA. Multivariate testing introduces a number of problems that JavaScript cannot handle using native constructs, one of which is the focus of this article: managing conditional dependencies."

Comments

Browser Apps are NOT desktop apps

[BitZtream]

Lets stop pretending they are anything close.

Google docs/sheets/whatever is a really crappy imitation of a full fledge office suite ... from 15-20 years ago. It doesn't even compare to Office 95 other than it has online sharing and collaboration, which is great, except thats a tiny subset of what its actually used for.

Just because you can make a half assed, no where near feature complete but looks pretty and does the first 3 things that come to mind look-a-like of an desktop app doesn't mean its a desktop replacement.

There are no desktop applications 'written entirely in javascript' unless you redefine what a desktop application is to fit a narrow subset of what everyone else does.

Learn to use the right tool for the job and stop thinking just because you can make something look-a-like and emulate a few basic functions that it is the same thing. A screwdriver can be used as a hammer, but it makes a shitty hammer. Google docs CAN be used in place of a full fledge office suite, but it makes a shitty office suite when you replace one entirely. Most geeks who use 'office suites' don't actually use office suites, they occasionally type a few pages into a word processor, sure but they don't do the same things as your full time paper pusher.

Re:Browser Apps are NOT desktop apps

[Mr. Mikey]

And yet, I use Google Docs on a regular basis... and find it sufficiently powerful, reliable, free, and with the features I need. If you'd like to create a competing product, please do... otherwise, just what are you bringing to the table?