Compression Utilities
No, I'm not talking about the different compression apps that exist out there like 7zip, pkzip, winzip, winrar, powerarchiver, or the one that Dustin uses (that I hear is fantastic). I'm talking about compression utilities that are useful for web development, meaning compressors that are made for javascript and/or css.
Javascript libraries add that little piece of something that you may be missing. Whether it's a little bit of extra form validation (extra because you should be validation on the server-side), a little ajax magic, or even just some eye-candy. Why would you need to compress the libraries down? Well that's a fair question, but let me answer that with another question, have you seen dojo? Do you really think that a user needs to download half-a-meg just to use your site?
For my experiments we will be using jQuery and it's effects with javascript compression. Although on the results page I will throw in some compression sizes from other popular libraries.
- The "Sample" page (used for the test)
- How to use a compressor
- How to enable compression on apache
- Results Summary
Links to more compression information:
- -== Compressors ==-
- Dean Edwards Packer
- JSMin - Minify
- YUI - Compressor
- Robson >>> CSS compressor
- -== JS Libraries ==-
- jQuery
- Prototype
- MooTools
- Dojo
- -== Other ==-
- JSLint - Javascript Verifier