Julien Lecomte: YUI Compressor, a new JavaScript minifier
Julien Lecomte writes Is there a need for a new JavaScript minifier? YUI Compressor is said to be better than the DoJo copmpressor.
[tease]
In terms of code minification, the most widely used tools to minify JavaScript code are Douglas Crockford’s JSMin and the Dojo compressor. Both tools however have pitfalls. JSMin, for example, does not yield optimal savings (due to its simple algorithm, it must leave many line feed characters in the code in order not to introduce any new bugs) The Dojo compressor, on the other hand, does a better job at compacting code (it obfuscates local variables) but is unsafe and potentially introduces bugs if you are unaware of its limitations.
What is the YUI Compressor?
The YUI Compressor is a new JavaScript minifier. Its level of compaction is higher than the Dojo compressor, and it is as safe as JSMin. Tests on the YUI library have shown savings of about 18% compared to JSMin and 10% compared to the Dojo compressor (these respectively become 10% and 5% after HTTP compression)