Minifier could be improved? (using interpolation)

Hi,

I have developed a mixin which uses interpolation to reduce unnecessary code:

Here's a simplified example:

@mixin applyThemeTo($selectorPrefix, $cssProperty, $selectorSuffix:"") {
    #{$selectorPrefix}a#{$selectorSuffix}       { #{$cssProperty}:$a-col;}
    #{$selectorPrefix}b#{$selectorSuffix}       { #{$cssProperty}:$b-col;}
    #{$selectorPrefix}c#{$selectorSuffix}       { #{$cssProperty}:$c-col;}
    #{$selectorPrefix}d#{$selectorSuffix}       { #{$cssProperty}:$d-col;}

}
@include applyThemeTo('a.menu-item-','background');
@include applyThemeTo('a.menu-item-','background','.selected');

Unfortunately this compiles down in the .min.css file to:

.s4-tn a.menu-item-a{background:red}
.s4-tn a.menu-item-b{background:#ff7d19}
.s4-tn a.menu-item-c{background:#f9c000}
.s4-tn a.menu-item-d{background:#90bf00}
.s4-tn a.menu-item-a.selected{background:red}
.s4-tn a.menu-item-b.selected{background:#ff7d19}
.s4-tn a.menu-item-c.selected{background:#f9c000}
.s4-tn a.menu-item-d.selected{background:#90bf00}

Now, if I run this through a typical CSS Compressor (e.g. www.csscompressor.com) it will come out as :

.s4-tn a.menu-item-a,.s4-tn a.menu-item-a.selected{background:red}
.s4-tn a.menu-item-b,.s4-tn a.menu-item-b.selected{background:#ff7d19}
.s4-tn a.menu-item-c,.s4-tn a.menu-item-c.selected{background:#f9c000}
.s4-tn a.menu-item-d,.s4-tn a.menu-item-d.selected{background:#90bf00}

I'm aware that this isn't typically much of an issue due to HTTP compression, but I'm curious: is there a way to make the minifier more aggressive? Is this a design question, roadmap issue, not on the radar?

Cheers

Ali Robertson

Hi Ali,

This is not something we control. We call out to the YUI compressor (generally regarded as a very good compressor). We don't actually build our own comrpessor.

We have got on the back log to look at making the compressors configurable (e.g. support different ones) but it's quite low on the priority list at present as the YUI is pretty good generally.

Appreciate your feedback though.

John-Daniel

Cool! always curious to know how these things work :)

Subsequent to this post, I've run my entire .min.css file through various compressors and found it to be pretty decent overall.

Thanks so much for a fantastic product (and a quick response!)