Has anyone compiled jQuery against Google's newly-released Closure compiler?
There has been reported huge savings in code size. I'm curious what the benefit is if jQuery was compiled with it.
A:
Doesn't Closure just minimize and renames vars? jQuery already has a .min version. Minifying with closure again will probably be minimally helpful and potentially dangerous.
Edit: I just did it.
Compilation was a success!
Original Size: 55.91KB (19.28KB gzipped)
Compiled Size: 54.05KB (18.28KB gzipped)
Saved 3.34% off the original size (5.18% off the gzipped size)
This is on top of the already mined version. There's a demo here: http://closure-compiler.appspot.com/home
Jourkey
2009-11-07 03:26:22
Yes, JQuery already uses a minifier. I just read an article about how Prototype was recompiled using Closure, instead of YUI Compressor. The Closure version of Prototype was 60% smaller than what YUI Compressor produced. That's crazy small and create for speeding up web applications.
Ted
2009-11-07 03:28:32
Theoretically, you could mix your JavaScript with jQuery and have Closure rename all of the `.click`,`.each` etc for additional savings.
Tinister
2009-11-07 03:33:12
Great idea tinister.
Jourkey
2009-11-07 03:38:46
@Tinister, how would you do that. Wouldn't Closure then need to parse your HTML page to see what is called and what's not called
Ted
2009-11-07 04:05:22
@Ted you'd include your code with jQuery all in one file and run the Closure Compiler against the whole shebang.
JasonWyatt
2009-11-07 04:26:55
@Ted @Tinster, ah I'm realizing that it could be sketchy with the compiler possibly minifying (incorrectly) the selectors specified in your own usage of jQuery... It's worth trying out though.
JasonWyatt
2009-11-07 04:28:38
What I mean is, what happens if from my HTML page, I don't call half of the functions found in JQuery. Shouldn't the Closure recognize this within my HTML document to then go and remove those functions from my .JS that are unused (within my JS). That's why I say, should Closure also be parsing my HTML page as well?
Ted
2009-11-07 04:35:10
You don't put any JS in your HTML page.
hobbs
2009-11-07 07:01:02
Closure Compiler doesn't just minimize and rename. If you compile a large JS program you'll see it is a recompile. It will put code inline where it makes sense to. It will reorganize complicated conditionals, etc.
Nosredna
2009-11-07 22:47:43
"minimally helpful" - Ha!
Dan Esparza
2009-11-13 19:15:38
Does everyone really think 3.34%-5.18% (1kb) is significant?
Jourkey
2009-11-16 05:39:25
+8
A:
I tried with jQuery jQuery 1.3.2
jQuery-1.3.2.min.js 57254 Bytes
jQuery closure compiler 49730 Bytes
-----------------------------------
Reduced by 7524 Bytes
Saved 13.31% off the original size
Saved 10.87% off the gzipped size
Gain of ~7KB
But it also reports 15 Warnings and I didn't test if it still works
jitter
2009-11-07 03:29:55
+2
A:
With ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS turned off:
- jquery-1.3.2.min.js: 57254 bytes
- jquery-1.3.2.closure.js 55346 bytes (-3.4%)
- jquery-1.3.2.min.js.gz: 19680 bytes
- jquery-1.3.2.closure.js.gz: 18666 bytes (-5.2%)
With ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS turned on: it doesn't work unmodified. With ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS turned on and everything I can find to export exported... it still doesn't quite wok, and the code is already up to 53466 bytes again (and 18785 gzipped, which is more than the gzipped closured code without ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS) so it doesn't look like a winning proposition.
hobbs
2009-11-07 04:21:31
The ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS flag does not optimize for file size but for execution speed(it tries to change your code to make it run faster, not download quicker).
Kekoa
2010-05-28 17:30:55
+13
A:
John Resig reported a bug on recursive functions when he attempted to compile a nightly of jQuery 1.4, so there are a few kinks to be worked out. I wouldn't use a jQuery compiled with Closure Compiler without making sure it passes the jQuery testbed.
http://code.google.com/p/closure-compiler/issues/detail?id=1&can=1#c2
Nosredna
2009-11-07 22:50:15
Pointing out that, now that jQuery 1.4 is released, the bugs are worked out and the Closure Compiler is now the primary minifier for jQuery :)
Matchu
2010-01-19 05:13:14
A:
You can find more details on using Google Closure API with ASP.NET at http://www.bloggingdeveloper.com/post/C-Wrapper-for-Google-Closure-Compiler-Compressing-Javascript-Files-on-the-fly-with-ASPNET-and-Closure-Compiler.aspx.
It features a C# wrapper for the tool.
Bdeveloper
2009-11-09 08:18:16
+3
A:
Think I'll wait for Resig and the team to release a new -min or special closured version. I wouldn't want to compress the library find out specific features didn't work or didn't work as expected.
Tom
2009-11-09 08:28:47
+2
A:
Out of curiosity, I put together a SlickSpeed test of the latest Prototype and jQuery libs, shrunk with YUI and Closure. You can run the tests here.
As others have noted, compiling with ADVANCED_OPT does not work but if someone wants to do the work, I'll be happy to add the results to the SlickSpeed test.
Jauder Ho
2009-11-10 06:38:18
+3
A:
The closure compiler eliminates any code that you don't actually use. The typical web page will only use a small fraction of jQuery functions, so the most benefit will come from compiling your code together with the full version of jQuery.
Steve Hanov
2009-12-02 22:53:49
But, of course, you lose any benefit from the jQuery code being cached on the user's computer (if it is).
Nosredna
2010-01-13 15:15:57
Actually, last time I checked Closure didn't actually remove unused functions from jQuery, I think because they're not actually defined as separate functions.
DisgruntledGoat
2010-04-09 12:51:44
+1
A:
I used Closure (with ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS) to compress the javascript code for a single-page site that I host and saw a significant size savings over the YUI Compressor. So I started looking into shrinking jQuery for that site as well, since it certainly doesn't use the entier jQuery library.
I get warnings every time I run jQuery through the compiler, mostly pointing out portions of the code that are not used. Even still, the compiled code doesn't work. The primary issue I see is that things aren't being exported properly by the compiler. I was able to easily export functions from my own code by attaching them to the window object, but I have not yet been able to do this yet with jQuery.
The good news is that John Resig is already experimenting with Closure. I suspect that we'll see new releases of both that are compatible in the near future.
Scott Johnson
2009-12-07 17:03:04