What do you do to your JavaScript code before deployment?

Question

Do you have a step in your deployment process that minifies JS? Do you have any sort of preprocessor for your JavaScript that allows you to leave in comments and console.logs and then have them automatically stripped out? Is your JavaScript machine generated by GWT or Script#? Do you use ANT or another tool to automate deployment?

I see a lot of JavaScript that looks like it comes right out of the editor, complete with lots of white space and comments. How much of that is due to not caring about the state of the deployed code, and how much is due to the spirit of the open web?

Answer 1

I usually check it out with JSLint to make sure it is bug-free, then pack it/encode it with YUI compressor.

Answer 2

My steps include:

1. I write Javascript using TextMate with the Javascript Tools bundle installed. This JSLint's my files on every save and notifies me when errors occur.
2. I use Sprockets to automatically concatenate my various Javascript files.
3. I run the resulting concatenation through jsmin to generate a minified version.

I end up with a concatenated lib.js file and a minified lib.min.js file. One I use for development, one for production. TextMate commands help automate it all.

I'm still looking for a good solution to actually (unit) test my scripts.