Baking
Baking is a software development methodology that involves pre-processing or pre-compiling assets, such as code, data, or configurations, into optimized formats to improve runtime performance and reduce load times. It is commonly used in web development, game development, and data-intensive applications to enhance efficiency and user experience. By transforming resources into a more efficient state during build time, baking minimizes computational overhead at runtime.
Developers should learn baking when working on projects where performance optimization is critical, such as high-traffic websites, real-time applications, or resource-constrained environments like mobile or embedded systems. It is particularly useful for reducing latency in web applications by pre-rendering pages, optimizing assets like images and scripts, or compiling shaders in game development to ensure smooth execution.