JavaScript Benchmarking Tools

Developing Ajax based applications without the help of frameworks will require extensive knowledge of JavaScript. The backbone of Ajax is not just the only programming language used but additional languages are also employed for better interaction.

By using JavaScript, developers are able to build applications from the scratch and could fully customize the application.

But using JavaScript has disadvantages. The fact that JavaScript could take a very long time to code will always be there. Security could also be flawed if the developer does not follow strict coding.

Another important aspect that is often left untouched is the speed of the application. It is always presumed that JavaScript and other client side programming languages will be dependent on the speed of the processing power of the local gadget.

Ignoring the speed of the application and leaving it for the local gadget to process the code will never assure the users that you have a powerful application.

The application could be actually tested before release through JavaScript benchmarking tools. These are tools that will not only test the speed of the application but will also look for errors and try to solve them as soon as possible.

The following are the JavaScript benchmarking tools that you can consider:

SunSpider: Developed by WebKit, the application is considered by most developers who are familiar with different JavaScript benchmarking tools are a relatively slow benchmarking tool. But that does not mean SunSpider is a bad tool.

In fact, this is often considered by developers who wanted to build highly interactive Ajax based application. By being slow, it will consider most parts of the applications.

Dromaeo: The relatively faster benchmarking tool was developed by Mozilla. The application could sweep the JavaScript application five to ten times wherein SunSpider will only cover the entire application one to five times at the same timeframe.

Dromaeo is actually a tricky benchmarking tool. It will sweep the entire application on the first to the fifth sweep but the sixth to the tenth sweep will only be focused on addressing the problems found during the first to the fifth sweep.

V8 Benchmarking Tool: Developed by Google this is probably the fastest benchmarking tool out there. This benchmarking tool could run up to 200 times while SunSpider could only do five times during the same time frame. The secret to this speed is that it only focuses on simpler functions.

Unfortunately, the speed does not say anything if you are building a complicated website. But if you are building a widget, you can let V8 run and seek out all the errors and bugs in no time at all.

You might have already noticed that the benchmarking tool’s performance is dependent on its speed. The faster the tool is, the simpler it gets. That does not mean you just have to go to the middle ground just to be safe.

Always consider the complexity of the application to select the proper tool. Using V8 on complicated tasks will never do while using SunSpider and Dromaeo is also a bad idea on simpler applications because of the extra effort for nothing.