Question

i started to use nodejs which is a great tool.
I use it to developp my front end , i’m already using the coffee-script to automatically compile to javascript , and the jasmine package that allows me to write unit tests. I’m looking for cool packages to speed up my javascript / css developppement.

For instance , when i’m done developping my app , i’d like a package that minify all my javascript files , then put it in a single file , a bit like the closure compiler. I guess I would have to write some kind of manifest file and then a nodejs utiliy would take all the file listed in that manifest and “compile” my app.

So what nodejs package can do that ?

Is there any other cool package i should use for rapid front end developpement with javascript/coffeescript ? thanks.

Answer 1

There’s Browserify for bundling and minifying your javascript. Even better, it allows you to use require() for client-side scripts, leading to cleaner, more modular code.

Update: These days I prefer RequireJS for loading javascript. It also provides a browser version of require and allows for bundling and minifying, but is even better at producing modular code. The one downside is that it doesn’t use npm installed modules.

Another update: A more recent alternative that offers interesting integration for other filetypes (css, html) as well as a good chunking implementation is Webpack.