Via Jon’s blog, “MSDN Low Bandwidth Bookmarklet.” There’s an experimental mode of MSDN that significantly reduces the page size for a typical MSDN entry.
You can try it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.array(loband).aspx.
Notice the “(loband)” in the URL? That’s the secret. Jon created a bookmarklet which turns on and off the feature via a cookie.
I noticed that if I navigate to system.array in the low bandwidth mode, it takes about 1.5 seconds to load the page completely. When the normal page loads, it takes about 6 seconds on my 1.5Mb DSL connection.
I’d like to see a few different modes/options to speed up MSDN:
- Tree-less: I don’t use the tree feature much on the web, I could live without it usually. Opt-in please.
- “Chrome-less”. Just give me MSDN, without the tabs, logos, etc. I don’t use them. You can leave search though — that can be useful. (Although, Google often does a better job!)
- Load only my language selection (not all languages). I never use VB.NET for example.
- Delay load: inheritance, platforms, version, and see also sections.
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FYI, you can opt out of the tree view in the msdn library. If you type the letter “t” while viewing the page, the tree view is hidden and the corresponding data never gets sent the client