JavaScript comment stripper breaks websites

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/19/tmobile_borks_web_pages/

I found that interesting because the argument has been put forward that comments don't slow down things.

So it appears that there are real-life circumstances in which comment-stripping does help. Never mind that the article cited deals with a botched attempt.

I had asked elsewhere about the possible impact that "credits" and "licences" included in several freeware program files could have at least on start-up times and was given the impression that it was nothing to worry about.

 

Startup times? The reason they are doing this is to reduce the size of the script, and therefor to speed up the download and reduce network impact. It has nothing to do with the speed of processing the script after it's been downloaded.

You wouldn't notice on a standard internet connection, and I'd wager the few KB saved is also pointless on a mobile connection also.