Reduce HTTP requests or not?

Question

A theoretical question:
We all know about the pro\'s of minifying and combining javascript files in order to reduce HTTP requests to speed up a website. But when popular jav

Answer 1

• "Combine and minify each script into a massive one and serve it from my own CDN"

  If you have a CDN, what are we talking about? :) You mean server, right?

• "How does the big guys in the industry handle it?"

  The big guys always use their own servers.

• "...it isn't too stupid to assume that these already have been downloaded to the clients computer from another page."

  Unfortunately it is. Facts:

  • 40-60% of users have an empty cache experience
  • browsers' cache limits are small
  • different versions of libraries are in use, cache only happens if they match
  • resource from a new domain creates a DNS lookup, which is slow
  • +you need to manage dependencies