-----Original Message-----
From: wikitech-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikitech-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of
Gregory Maxwell
Sent: 16 September 2009 22:35
To: Wikimedia developers
Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Usability
initiative(HotCatreplacement/improvements etc.)
On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 5:24 PM, Jared Williams
<jared.williams1(a)ntlworld.com> wrote:
> Can distribute them across multiple domain names, thereby
bypassing
the
browser/HTTP limits.
Something along the lines of
'c'.(crc32($title) & 3).'.en.wikipedia.org'
Would atleast attempt to download upto 4 times as many things.
Right, but it reduces connection reuse. So you end up taking
more TCP handshakes and spend more time with a small
transmission window. (plus more DNS round-trips; relevant
because wikimedia uses low TTLs for GSLB reasons) TNSTAAFL.
Indeed, it all rather depends on usage.
There is also that sprite option, combing all the icons into a single
image, and using CSS tricks to display each icon. But seems far too
much pfaff to keep track of, if want the individual icons as wiki
content.
My personal prefered solution would be to have the icons in SVG and
embed them directly into the page. But I guess that is not acceptable
for the browser agnostic wikipedia audience.
Jared