Pack your JavaScript with ease ...

Brian Moschel just told us about Include: It determines which files to compress at runtime and automatically compresses them into one script using Dean Edwards' Packer.

Brian Moschel just told us about Include:

It determines which files to compress at runtime and automatically compresses them into one script using Dean Edwards Packer.

You can include any JavaScript from any other JavaScript with a relative path:
PLAIN TEXT
JAVASCRIPT:
include( amyscript.js);
 

Then turn on compression like this:
PLAIN TEXT
JAVASCRIPT:
include.setup({env: compress});
include(javascripts/prototype, javascripts/myapplication);
 

When you reload the page, a window will open that contains a list of the scripts as they are loaded, the uncompressed collection of code, and the code compressed with Packer. You save the compressed code on your server and turn on production mode:
PLAIN TEXT
JAVASCRIPT:
include.setup({env: production, production: path/to/prod});
include(javascripts/prototype, javascripts/myapplication);
 

Scripts load in the same order across all browsers (last-in first-out), which is nice, considering document.write by default works differently in Opera.

Another aspect we are excited about is that Include makes it so you will never have to write a custom server-side compression script again. Since the scripts to compress are determined at runtime, you can easily compress large libraries with conditional plugins, like TinyMCE.
PLAIN TEXT
JAVASCRIPT:
if (selected_plugins[fullscreen]);
    include( wouldependencies,fullscreen);
// conditionally include plugin
if (selected_plugins[ isearch]);
    include( isearch);
 

Instead of duplicating that logic in a server-side script, you can choose your plugins, turn on compress mode, and you have got your compressed code. To demonstrate this, we ported TinyMCE and plugins to use Include.

source: ajaxian

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