PART II
Chapter 6: Networking Considerations 279
There’s Always More
With Ajax there is always more to know. For example, in our speed discussion, it was shown
that time trumps bytes and requests. The user’s perception of speed is a function of many
things well beyond the network. Consider, for example, local system speed. If computation is
moved to the client side and a rich interface is built in JavaScript, the user’s system will greatly
influence their perception of speed. It is a fallacy to assume that high bandwidth implies high
computing power. For example, many schools have high bandwidth and older systems.
It is possible to address the problem of user system speed by creating a system
performance metric such as how fast certain mathematical calculations can be performed to
inform us if a user might have local execution trouble. Obviously, you would want to
degrade the user’s experience to something pleasurable or simply issue an alert if the endFIGURE 6-24 The number of requests signifi cantly infl uences high-speed users.