The problem is not volume but extremely long lines. Minified js is one veeery long line. I think that they have some O(n^2) in their line algorithm. You can paste 60-70 thousand lines and it will highlight instantly. The same code minified will hang the IDE.
On a side note, you should preserve some new lines in your minified js as it makes dealing with production JavaScript errors much easier, assuming you have some kind of onerror hook that sends you js errors. The new lines don't add much to the overall size of your js but they make debugging much easier.
We have been meaning to get around to looking into this on my current project but haven't yet: I believe the browser's error event will return a column number.
> Column numbers in Firefox. Firefox is the only browser that doesn't support column numbers for exceptions. This makes debugging minified javascript essentially impossible. I've sent one patch but there's a lot more to do.
Yes you get column numbers and that really helps as well, but as mentioned new lines don't really hurt that much and I'd rather have some new lines than none. In response to others about using source maps, I'm talking about production errors received from users in the wild who may or may not have source maps enabled in their browser.
Thats what I do, too. It makes debugging so much easier, and you can safe yourself the pain of source maps. A few bytes I gladly spend on keeping my sanity.
I've always wondered why minifiers don't take advantage of ASI to this effect. Your files come out the exact same size as cramming it onto a line with semicolons...
