Usually, the javascripts of the main page is heavier than other pages. For example, we put jQuery slideshow in the main page which is not used in other pages. Is it necessary to create different s for the main and individual pages to include only in-action javacript files?
Or all javascript files read on the first page will be cached for browsing the website, and in loading an indivitual page, browser will not read the javascript of slideshow?
Another form of this question is: if I put slideshow on each individual page, will the browser load the slideshow javascript file each time, or it will read from its cache (saved on the visitor’s computer)?
like florian h says most browsers will cache the content (unless development tools are being used).
if you only use the slideshow javascript on one page I would recommend putting it in a separate file. There is a downside to this, most often the http requests take the longest time with loading a file.
So if you for example have one javascript file of 1mb and you need all the javascript on most pages its better then using 4 smaller files of 250kb each. Because your browser needs to do 4 separate requests.
Ofcourse this maybe is a difference of a couple of milliseconds of performance profit, so you might want to choose to do it in separate files anyway to increase maintainability.