Which should be included first in <head>?

**samanime** · Aug 2, 2011 08:22

I still disagree that "in the head" is where it belongs.

I do agree that having a script element randomly placed in the body is a pain to find and maintain, and it shouldn't be there. However, I think right before the closing body tag is perfectly acceptable and just as easy to maintain as if it's in the head. And you get a boost in load speed.

Once again, the exception to this is in cases like Stormrider describes where you use JS to heavily change the layout. In these cases I'd put it in the head so you don't get a random rearrange of the screen.

However, things like click events and other things that don't appear initially should be in the footer.

**Stomme poes** · Aug 2, 2011 08:32

I may be missing something, though;

IE6 and IE7 get blocked simply loading javascript... IE8 does not.

**Stormrider** · Aug 2, 2011 09:24

Originally Posted by samanime

I still disagree that "in the head" is where it belongs.

I do agree that having a script element randomly placed in the body is a pain to find and maintain, and it shouldn't be there. However, I think right before the closing body tag is perfectly acceptable and just as easy to maintain as if it's in the head. And you get a boost in load speed.

Once again, the exception to this is in cases like Stormrider describes where you use JS to heavily change the layout. In these cases I'd put it in the head so you don't get a random rearrange of the screen.

However, things like click events and other things that don't appear initially should be in the footer.

But then it always worries me... what if someone tries to click before the script has loaded? Or interact with any element that the script will attach events to.

**samanime** · Aug 2, 2011 09:31

I do worry about that as well and weigh the pros and cons:
- Is this something that is likely to load substantially before the script?
- Is this something that will look broken before the script loads?
- etc

If it is something I worry about, I will move it above. However, a lot of times they're things that don't matter if they're loaded or not by the time they click them (or they'll load before they're able to click them). Most click actions have actions that work without the Javascript as well, just not as perfectly.

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