Are all of the default scripts loaded by Magento really needed?

Question

Here's a listing of all the scripts loaded by Magento by default:

../js/prototype/prototype.js    //prototype library
../js/prototype/validation.js   //don't know what this does
../js/scriptaculous/builder.js  //don't know what this does
../js/scriptaculous/effects.js  //base scriptaculous effects library?
../js/scriptaculous/dragdrop.js //component of scriptaculous effects
../js/scriptaculous/controls.js //not sure?
../js/scriptaculous/slider.js   //more scriptaculous effects
../js/varien/js.js          //don't know what this is
../js/varien/form.js        //form validation scripts?
../js/varien/menu.js        //menu/drop down menu scripts
../js/mage/translate.js     //don't know what this does
../js/mage/cookies.js       //don't know what this does

these scripts total 316.8K of javascript... all in various states of being minified (for example, prototype.js isn't minified).

So my first question:

1) Aside from prototype.js, are all of the others really that needed?

and

2) What is the "correct" way to remove these scripts? Layout updates? Or hardcoded in templates?

I want to make the loading of my magento site as light weight as possible.

thanks!

Answer 1

I cant say what they are all for but I know that most of them are needed annoyingly as Magento does use allot of JS.

This does not answer your question but you can minimise their effect with Magento 1.4.01 (probably in 1.4.0 as well) by going into System -> Config -> Advanced -> Developer -> JavaScript settings and then merge them all so you only have one HTTP request (same can be done with CSS).

I would guess that the "most correct" way to go about removing them would be to make a new theme that does not need them and not include them as they would not be needed so in answer to question 2 i would say templates would most definitely be the way forward. I cannot remember the exact template that controls this but I'm sure I have seen one that has a big list of JS / CSS includes