Should I compress my JavaScript files if server support HTTP compression?

Question

My server supports HTTP compression. Is there any advantage to compressing my JavaScript files? (not minifying them)

Update and clarification to what I mean:

IIS HTTP Compression - the server takes care of compression
GZip compression - see response - I pre-compress the archive and serve it as script.js.gz.

Well, it surely **compresses** the file contents, reducing its transferred size, and should speed up loading it — Ian, Jun 06 '13 at 14:03
Possible duplicate: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/807119/gzip-versus-minify — David Jashi, Jun 06 '13 at 14:06
Guys, thanks for the quick responses. But do note that I'm asking about whether JS compression is good or redundant if I use HTTP compression, minifying aside. — Dor Rotman, Jun 06 '13 at 14:22
GZipping the JavaScript file, like in the question David linked to. — Dor Rotman, Jun 06 '13 at 14:27

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 06 '13 at 14:08

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Compressing your JS file will lead to, as Ian answered, smaller size and thus faster downloads. This is really a must-have for people coming from mobile devices or low-internet speeds(say at a free wifi spot, for instance).

answered Jun 06 '13 at 14:08

ulisesrmzroche

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There's always a tradeoff, between processing and transferring. Using `gzip`, the client has to unzip the contents and put it back together, taking some extra processing...so it's not the best idea to use if the client is lower on resources. But obviously, a slow network (in whatever way), compression is great so that there's less to transfer – Ian Jun 06 '13 at 14:29

Should I compress my JavaScript files if server support HTTP compression?

1 Answers1