2 ms·
> Cache memory is not vital for a CPU "to be fast" in every situation, it's vital for a CPU to be fast with bulk data. If you're working on bits and pieces of i
by jokoon 13y ago
> Cache memory is not vital for a CPU "to be fast" in every situation, it's vital for a CPU to be fast with bulk data. If you're working on bits and pieces of information that are hundreds of bytes in length, low cache count is no excuse to be slow.
That's why the software and protocol you use on a mobile device should be very much different. To me, desktop and mobile software are way too much similar.
The fact a programmer will fuck up an app boils to the fact twitter will use HTTP, which is text, on top of SSL. This can't be blazing fast for such a low powered device, especially if it's a library API thing you use to make an app on top of it. I think google and the web in general are mostly to blame because they're responsible of spreading text based protocols.
I'm just concerned about mobile software, because the hardware is really really good, but the software had not been adapted for it. We just need protocols and format that are just faster, more compact, and maybe rely on other networking optimizations. bittorrent, for example, is a great example of a reliable binary protocol.
HTTP and HTML were great because they are easy platforms to make something on, but they require more memory because of parsers and more bandwidth because one single web page will often weigh 100ko, and run a javascript engine which is not a simple piece of software.
The hardware has gotten smaller, maybe we also need to make smaller software too ! I agree there are also security concerns about binary protocols, but it's just weird that there are so few open, standardized binary protocols, maybe because developers find working with http being just easier. You can't have it easy all the time.
- weland 13y ago> The fact a programmer will fuck up an app boils to the fact twitter will use HTTP, which is text, on top of SSL. This can't be blazing fast for such a low powered device, especially if it's a library API thing you use to make an app on top of it. I think google and the web in general are mostly to blame because they're responsible of spreading text based protocols. I think this paints only part of the truth. About an year ago (I don't know if this still applies today), I grudgingly agreed to see if Phonegap could be of any help to us in a project. The difference in interface alone was noticeable: slider widgets were sloppy and noticeably froze, on a mid-range phone. The same native widget was fine. Clearly, then, the phone isn't memory- or CPU-starved to the point where it can't paint a slider widget. It logically follows that one implementation of that widget is inefficient (sweet talk for "it's worse than it could be", if not "it's bad"). HTTP over SSL probably does make for slow data transfer on such a device, but it should play little role in a sloppy UI. I've seen fluid, well-built UIs that ran on slower devices, over slower data links (think hundreds of bytes per second or even less). They adequately conveyed the information that the device is waiting for data, or that data is being fed at a slow pace, but they weren't botching.