what is the difference between these two jquery validate plugin files

Question

This is going to be a simple question to many of you, but I just spent a good few hours debugging an issue that was solved simply by using the jquery plugin file "jquery.validate.min.js" instead of "jquery.validate.js".

That was literally the only difference (there was this "uncaught exception: Syntax error, unrecognized expression: [@for ....") but that's beside the point. I'm curious now, at the risk of sounding like a noob, what is the difference between these 2 files? For future plugins, should I always use the file that has the word "min" in it? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The one is minified, the other is not.

This should in fact not lead to differences in functionality of the code. Apparently there was a version difference in the files you got and the min file just by coincidence contains a bugfix for your particular problem. To ensure of having the latest version, just get it from their main page.