JSYaMin: Yet another JavaScript Minifier and obfuscator
What is JSYaMin?
It is a command line tool that can minify the source JavaScript code at the very good rate. It does so, by removing unnecessary characters from the code and optionally substituting variable and function names in a process called obfuscation.
What is it for?
To help keeping the web page as lightweight as possible.
How does it work?
You can read about it here.
What about other similar tools?
I've made some competition testing. You can read more about it here.
However, if you don't like reading, here is a table that compares the example compression ratio for JSYaMin and YUI Library: YUI Compressor on prototype.js (version 1.6.1).
The size is in characters, not bytes. The line endings are counted as one character here.
| Original size | YUI size | JSYaMin size |
|---|---|---|
| 139854 | 81469 | 79721 |
| 41.75% | 43.00% |
Where can I test it?
I've prepared the web front-end for JSYaMin, working as a back-end tool on my server. You may use it for testing here.
The front-end is using prototype Ajax calls, so remember to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
It has some limitation though. You can't minify scripts that have more than 64 kilobytes.
If you need JSYaMin minified prototype library, you can download it here: prototype.js.
What production stage JSYaMin is in?
Despite the fact that it was thoroughly tested on world famous scripts it can still have bugs, that could make some constructions of code breakable. Therefore its production stage is currently Alpha.
How can I get it?
You can't download the tool yet. Feel free to use the web front-end. But if you are really interested in obtaining the command line executable in current alpha stage, please don't hesitate and e-mail me: jsyamin at royal.asz.pl. Please state at least what operating system you are using.
What is soon to be expected?
Next, I will add E4X support and make JSYaMin JavaScript version 1.7 compatible. Then I will think of a way for releasing it worldwide.
What else should I know?
Every javascript code on these pages was compressed with JSYaMin, including prototype.js.
Who the author is?
My name is Rafał Michalski and I live in Poland. I am a self-learned programmer that tries to treat programming as a hobby. But sometimes it's hard, because it's generally a very time-consuming task. So I usually end up doing some coding for living. If you have interesting projects that involves either cool JavaScript coding or C, C++ unix or linux server back-end features, feel free to contact me: rafal.michalski at royal.asz.pl.