Michele Riva

Things I learned while writing high-performance JavaScript applications

We built a full-text search engine in JavaScript that rivals Rust's performance. Here's how we did it using four key principles.

Things I learned while writing high-performance JavaScript applications
#1about 5 minutes

The four pillars of high-performance JavaScript

JavaScript can be as fast as lower-level languages by focusing on four key areas: algorithms, dependencies, optimizations, and architecture.

#2about 5 minutes

The importance of algorithms and data structures

Learning algorithms should be driven by practical goals like side projects, not just passing interviews at large tech companies.

#3about 4 minutes

Managing dependencies for better performance

Categorize dependencies as inevitable, convenient, or empowering to avoid unnecessary overhead from general-purpose libraries like Lodash.

#4about 6 minutes

Optimizing code by understanding the V8 runtime

Write faster code by using imperative programming, understanding V8 engine features like TurboFan, and using monomorphic functions.

#5about 4 minutes

How software architecture impacts performance

Performance strategies must adapt to the execution environment, such as browsers, servers, or constrained nano services like Cloudflare Workers.

#6about 2 minutes

Balancing performance metrics beyond raw speed

Consider performance trade-offs between raw execution speed, iteration speed for development, and team onboarding efficiency.

#7about 2 minutes

Q&A on TypeScript, clean code, and algorithms

The speaker answers audience questions about using TypeScript without performance penalties, the trade-offs of "dirty" code, and Dijkstra's algorithm.

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