4 ms·

With the majority of websites, the content is changing the majority of the time which means the HTML has to be compressed after each change & sure they’re are s

With the majority of websites, the content is changing the majority of the time which means the HTML has to be compressed after each change & sure they’re are scripts to do this but in comparison, CSS/JS files are rarely changed – they’re generally changed when a new feature/design is implemented. Another reason is because, websites are becoming more dynamic & it’s not very cacheable – CSS/JS are extremely cacheable. Since on every request you have the extra task of running minimization on the complete HTML of a webpage (especially if your website is dynamic and you’re using a script to do this) and this is time you could have used to transfer data. Moreover, there are other low hanging fruit that most websites need to tackle first – minimizing HTTP request, removing unnecessary images, minifying images, minifying & combining CSS/JS.

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
>extra task of running minimization on the complete HTML of a webpage Of course that would be slow, but if you have compiled templates on a dynamic site, could you not strip out whitespace at compile-time?
- itsprofitbaron 14y ago
  Minifying dynamically generated files on the fly is harder than static ones (Its obviously possible but you have to take it into consideration) & there are some cases where it actually might decrease performance as, every page request requires minifying. Personally, I think the benefits of minifying your HTML won't pay off until you're receiving a significant amount of traffic anyway. Which is why, for the large majority of sites they'll see better value through minifying/combining their CSS/JS and tackling the other low hanging fruit first.
  - mistercow 14y ago
    I think you didn't understand the parent post. TazeTSchnitzel is saying that when the template is initially compiled, it can be minified. Then you'd get that minification for free forever after.
    - itsprofitbaron 14y ago
      I understood the question which is why, I said there are still performance issues if you try to do this & its only beneficial to websites that receive a large volume of traffic as they are the ones who will see the benefits of doing this; there are other low hanging fruit that can improve performance before even looking minifying HTML.

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago

>extra task of running minimization on the complete HTML of a webpage Of course that would be slow, but if you have compiled templates on a dynamic site, could you not strip out whitespace at compile-time?

itsprofitbaron 14y ago
Minifying dynamically generated files on the fly is harder than static ones (Its obviously possible but you have to take it into consideration) & there are some cases where it actually might decrease performance as, every page request requires minifying. Personally, I think the benefits of minifying your HTML won't pay off until you're receiving a significant amount of traffic anyway. Which is why, for the large majority of sites they'll see better value through minifying/combining their CSS/JS and tackling the other low hanging fruit first.
- mistercow 14y ago
  I think you didn't understand the parent post. TazeTSchnitzel is saying that when the template is initially compiled, it can be minified. Then you'd get that minification for free forever after.
  - itsprofitbaron 14y ago
    I understood the question which is why, I said there are still performance issues if you try to do this & its only beneficial to websites that receive a large volume of traffic as they are the ones who will see the benefits of doing this; there are other low hanging fruit that can improve performance before even looking minifying HTML.