There is a lot of talk on the Internet right now about how important it is to minimize your JavaScript. Speed is all that matters.
But does minimization work against open source openness?
One of the great features of JS (as opposed to flash and background) is that the source code is right there, accessible by other developers who come and think: "Hey, that looks good, I wonder how they are done". JS source code is available for everyone to view, and therefore developers can learn from it, adapt it and use similar JS for their own projects.
Minifying JS makes it unreadable. This prevents the external developer from reading code, and therefore cancels horizontal sharing and learning.
Obviously, there will be some who want to minimize their JS in order to pursue their intellectual property. It is always a shame when people undermine the creativity of the open source community, but this is somewhat understandable and, of course, will not stop.
But for the rest of us, developers - people who use open-source every day in our lives - JS minification gets in our way. This makes us unable to take advantage of the discovery of the Internet. This closes the possibility of creative exchange.
I'm all about some things that can be reduced - libraries, plugins, etc. (and, possibly, when servicing JS on a mobile). But for custom code that makes your individual website personal, a minimal code is not needed. This can save a few milliseconds of boot time, but keeping it open will not change that much. Most sites on the Internet probably have less than 20KB of custom JS code, and the advantage of minimizing is really minimal. Are several ms really compared to keeping JS code open, readable, and accessible to others?
For sites with a lot of JS, perhaps we could start developing an open source standard so that developers can enter a slightly different URL to serve insecure code. If the minified code is in domain.com/script.min.js, let unminified be always available on domain.com/script.js or /script.full.js. Or are there any other suggestions?
I can not find anything else on the Internet talking about this problem. Everything is on the other side - pushing mineralization. And that worries me. This makes me think that, as developers, we allowed ourselves to plunge into the undeniable ideology of speed, regardless of other factors. And, probably, because of the nature of ideology, some of you reading this will immediately want to reject it and object to it. But think a little more - is this a tiny speed advantage that is really worth the loss of open source creativity? I do not believe that this is so.
So, I think my question is, where is the debate about open source JavaScripting?