The Editorial · Engineering
Rendering patterns — or why the barfi sits on the counter and the jalebi is fried while you wait
Every sweet shop runs two kitchens at once. The trays of barfi were made at six in the morning — you point, you pay, you're out in forty seconds. The jalebi is fried in front of you and you wait four minutes for it. Neither is the better system; they're answers to different questions. Every rendering strategy with a three-letter name is a version of that same decision: when does this page get made? Here are the five real answers, what each one costs, and how to tell which of your pages is barfi and which is jalebi.