Software development: It’s not the code you write, but how you write the code that makes all the difference…

When it comes to programming, there typically is no one “right” way to write code. Every developer, depending on his or her education, background, experience etc. writes code differently. In the programming realm (just like in real life), there are many ways to say or write the same thing; some are more efficient, while others are more intuitive and easier to understand.

Lots applications are written using code extracted from text books. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on who you are--human or machine); text books are written primarily so people can easily follow and grasp concepts-they are not typically written with performance in mind. Very little thought, if any, is given to alternative methods of writing code and how to make it more efficient.

For example, while it seems that current browsers continue to optimize their JavaScript engines for basic operations, how the code is written can directly impact the performance, capability, scalability and end-user experience of any application. Let's analyze a simple JavaScript loop. The purpose is to iterate through a simple array or list of items using different approaches. Notice the differences in the performance of each browser:

IE 11

Firefox 25.0.1

Google Chrome 31.0.1

As you can see, each loop implementation serves exactly the same purpose. However, there are quantifiable variations in performance.  All browsers have strengths and weaknesses. The browser must be taken under consideration when writing code. For example, while Chrome may be optimized to perform loop operations more efficiently as compared to IE; it does not perform as well when invoking functions. This explains why Chrome, in this specific example, is the slowest one when using JQuery approach.

A few other things to consider…

It's important to consider the environment (Operating system, Hardware, etc.) where your code will be executed. Equally important is to benchmark the environment where the code will be running. This will allow you to develop adaptive code that is optimized regardless of the environment.

What can I do with this information? That depends on you. You can try to convince your company into switching to a different browser. Cross your fingers and quietly hope that your application is not using code that runs slowly or that makes the application unusable.

Or…..

A better idea might be to set the goal of writing smarter, flexible and adaptive code that takes into account all of the different techniques and environments that are out there. It’s your call. So, whether you are a developer or hiring a developer, it always pays to THINK…DESIGN…BUILD before you start any project. A little R&D like this can go a long way to ensuring the overall success of your project.

We would like to thank jfPerf (http://jsperf.com/) for the use of their tool. jsPerf aims to provide an easy way to create and share test cases, comparing the performance of different JavaScript snippets by running benchmarks.

Here is the link to our test:

http://jsperf.com/etag-loop-perf

By: Sam Gonell, CEO & Co-Founder eTag Technologies and J. Heath Shatouhy, Senior Vice President / Partner eTag Technologies

Timing Is Everything: When You Should Publish Your Content

Nick Randazzo is a research-savvy intern at AWeber. He dug up some interesting stats for us, and here they are!
Whether or not you’ve considered when you should publish blog posts or post something on social media, time of day can really matter to get the best results.
People see your content in different places based on what time of day it is. To get the most views on your content, you should pay attention to the time of day that you post it. If you’re not too sure when to post, don’t worry- we – with graphs from Hubspot’s Dan Zarella – are about to break it all down for you.

Morning: Blog Posts, Then Facebook

Most people view articles and blogs during the morning. This is when people catch up on the news and search for the day’s ideas. This graph visualizes this.

Because blog views peak in the morning, take advantage of publishing your posts early. The earlier you publish, the more people will read your post.
Facebook posts get the most shares between 8:30 and 10:00 am.

You should make your most important posts in the mid-morning. They’ll get more shares this way.
OK, so the most important information should get out via Facebook and blogs in the morning, but what about the rest of the day?

Afternoon And Evening: Twitter

Twitter has the most activity in the later afternoon.

The important line to notice is the “ReTweet” curve. Random Tweets are the content you put out originally, but ReTweets are shared beyond your current followers, so they introduce new people to your content.
The rate of ReTweets increases as the afternoon goes on, so if you want to advertise your content through twitter efficiently, late afternoon is the best time to do it.

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A recap: Most people check Facebook on waking and then turn to Twitter later in the day.

What About Blog Posts And Facebook Later In The Day?

The graph above shows that a respectable number of people still read blogs all throughout the day.
While it is still most effective to get them out early, sending them out later is not the end of the world.
Facebook sharing spikes again in the evening.
You can best use Twitter to close the gap between Facebook’s morning peak and evening spike.

How Do Emails Fit In?

Something like an email is different.
There is no universal best time to send emails. It changes based on what you’re advertising and who your audience is.
If you’ve already created a consistent experience with your readers (such as sending Tuesdays at lunchtime or Sunday evenings), it’s likely they’re comfortable with the pattern and might not want it to vary.
Otherwise, the only way to find out the best time to send to your subscribers is to test!
Send out your emails at different times and see how your results vary: a lot of people open their emails in the morning, some open in the afternoon, and many others don’t even have the option to view their emails during the day.
You have to just keep on experimenting until you find the best time for you!

By: Re-posted by J. Heath Shatouhy, Senior Vice President / Partner eTag Technologies