[Pkg-javascript-devel] Bug#677619: Bug#677619: libjs-jquery-ui: Please provide pristine copy of upstream minified files too

[Jonas Smedegaard]

On 12-06-15 at 10:23pm, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Jun 2012, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> > On 12-06-15 at 09:28pm, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> > > Right. At least it would be nice to use the same minifier tool 
> > > than upstream in the hope to generate the same minified file then.
> > 
> > I disagree.  That would be comparable to using same C compiler with 
> > same compile options (with less success for C than for JavaScript, 
> > probably).
> 
> Well, it's not exactly on the same scope, no. Minifying changes the 
> "appearance" of the file, not its intrinsic nature.
> 
> > As I understand it, the need for producing identical minification 
> > output is only to ease identification of those files, which I 
> > believe is better and more reliably done by hashing, with no ill 
> > sideeffects (e.g. some minifiers sometimes produce broken output).
> 
> I agree that hashing would be more reliable, but it's also much more 
> work for everybody and the infrastructure doesn't exist yet... so I 
> don't see why using the same minifier could not be a sane 
> recommendation in the mean time.

  * some minifiers produce broken results sometimes for some code.
    (as already mentioned earlier).  The use of different minifier
    may reveal bugs in upstream code or in Debian packaged minifier
    and/or JavaScript code.

  * Different versions of minifiers produce different minifications.  
    Maintaining multiple versions of minifiers around for the purpose of 
    being able to reproduce upstream minification seems quite wrong to 
    me.

  * Some minifiers exist as web services, not (DFSG-free) local tools.

Some of above are not arguments against _trying_ to mimic upstream, only 
in the likelihood of success.  But as a principle I find it to be a 
wrong aim for Debian to mimic upstream regarding minification - whether 
or not it is "appearance" only: The purpose of minification is 
efficiency, and we should pick the most efficient minifier available to 
us, no matter if it happens to produce exact same results as upstream 
minification.


 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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