Google Closure is a Knock off of Dean Edwards Packer Java Script Compressor

by : Brandon Wirtz

Java Script isn't Compiled until it runs, as result if is often in efficient.  Uncompressed Java Script contains comments, friendly variable names, and white space.  Dean Edwards created packer and made it available as a Java Script Compressor. ( dean.edwards.name/packer/)

While there has been a lot of fan fare around Closure it is just Google's version of an old tool I have been using for nearly 6 years.   Google has made a command line version which is handy, but Dean offers the tool as .Net, Perl, and PHP.

Google Closure is a Knock off of Dean Edwards Packer Java Script Compressor Google Closure is a Knock off of Dean Edwards Packer Java Script Compressor

While it has a prettier UI the results are nearly identical.  Dean's tool averaged 61% reduction in size with code from my sites, and Google averaged 60%.

Though Dean's tool doesn't work well with Chrome so you may have to fire up IE or FireFox to get it to work.

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