![]() ![]() You aren’t going to have a lot of luck trying to time your garbage collection, so it’s important to write your code in a way that lets the process run smoothly in the background. Its timing depends on when memory is running low enough to prompt the garbage collector to run. It is not a continuous process, but rather runs in intervals. The issue of when garbage collection takes place is, practically speaking, impossible to predict. You can’t solve memory management problems by trying to explicitly direct garbage collection yourself. You are at the mercy of the JavaScript engine. Behind the Curtain of Garbage Collectionįirst of all, garbage collection is a completely automated task it can’t happen manually. When resolving these issues, it helps to know how the garbage collector makes decisions. In these cases, we can run into memory management issues. Garbage collection is a convenient service and works well most of the time, but sometimes it doesn’t do what we might expect. Framer animations generally run at 60 fps, so if garbage collection takes longer than 16 ms, then your prototype will start to skip frames causing visual issues. This process takes time, depending on how much work it has to do. The JavaScript engine includes a process called “garbage collection,” during which it periodically scans through all memory currently in use and decides what to release. You might have noticed a glaring ambiguity in that explanation - the object “is no longer needed.” Once the object is no longer needed, the memory must be released to be recycled for other purposes. The object will occupy memory for as long as it is needed by the program. This memory is used from a pool of memory called the heap it is allocated to the object that needs it. Every time a new object is created, it needs a chunk of memory. This force is called the JavaScript engine, and it is accomplished through a continuous process of memory allocation, usage, and release.Įverything in JavaScript is an object (even your functions!). When a JavaScript application (such as a Framer prototype) is running in the browser, some mysterious force must step in so we don’t consume all the memory available for things we don’t need. You don’t have infinite amounts of memory for a programming task. Related: 5 UX Design Lessons I’ve Learned The Basics of JavaScript Memory Management Memory and the JavaScript Engine Once you’re equipped with the knowledge to resolve memory management issues, you’ll be able to create polished, high-performance products free of lag and flickering animations. In this article, I’ll give you the fast facts on JavaScript memory management that can help you understand why your prototype is misbehaving. This guide is intended for UX designers with some level of familiarity with Framer code, but no in-depth knowledge of JavaScript. We might recognize the mysterious process of garbage collection is important, but when a Google search surfaces articles about heaps, generational theory, and scavenging, it’s natural to wonder if you need a four-year degree to gain a practical understanding of memory management. ![]() Memory leaks can present themselves unexpectedly and throw everything out of whack, making your prototype instantly unpresentable until the issue is resolved.īut “memory management” sounds out of our knowledge scope as UX designers. Have you ever set out to build a robust, high-fidelity UI prototype in a code-based tool like Framer, only to find that it suddenly begins to behave poorly, with janky animations and delayed responses? JavaScript-based prototypes are really just single page web applications, and they’re prone to the same memory management problems as any web app. ![]()
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