Hacker News Reader

I use semicolons when they're needed (for loops, multiple statements per line), and don't use them when they're not. The code becomes cleaner to my eyes.

View on HN

They're always needed so the JavaScript can be run through a compressor for production deployment without breaking the code.

Beyond that you're using curly braces when they're not strictly required, which seems inconsistent. I would expect either both all the time or both only when strictly necessary.

Surely if the language specification calls semicolons optional then any compressor worth its salt should honor that? The YUI Compressor, at least, copes with semicolon-devoid Javascript just fine.

That's the sufficiently smart compiler argument. The fact remains you have more options available to you for minifying if you don't consider semi-colons optional, naming one compressor that can deal doesn't change the fact that most can't.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com