Google Closure Tools
Google Closure Tools[3] is a set of tools to help developers build rich web applications with JavaScript. It was developed by Google for use in their web applications such as Gmail, Google Docs and Google Maps.[4]
Original author(s) | |
---|---|
Initial release | November 5, 2009[1] |
Stable release | v20190618
/ June 22, 2019[2] |
Available in | JavaScript |
Type | Ajax framework |
License | Apache License 2.0 |
Website | developers |
Closure Compiler
The Closure Compiler is a tool for making JavaScript download and run faster, at the expense of human readability. It does not compile from JavaScript to machine code, but rather compiles from JavaScript to more efficient JavaScript. It parses JavaScript, analyzes it, removes dead code and rewrites and minifies what is left. It also checks syntax, variable references, and types, and warns about common JavaScript pitfalls. It supports transpiling modern ECMAScript code to ECMAScript 5, so that programmers can write JavaScript that uses those features, and run it in browsers or other environments that do not yet support them. (The Traceur Compiler is another Google project that supports transpiling ES6 to ES3.)
CLI based tools
Tool set provide a command line tools used to optimize and compile .js
files:
Others
- Interactively in the browser:
- The Closure Compiler service website provides a form for a user to input a URL pointing to a JavaScript source or enter JavaScript source code in a textbox. The website will display with the optimized JavaScript on right side for the user to copy.[5]
- HTTP POST API:
- The Closure Compiler server accepts HTTP POST requests. Parameters include the string of JavaScript to be optimized (or a URL pointing to it), the optimization level, whether to include errors and warnings, and the output format (JSON, XML, or text).[6]
The Closure compiler also supports type checking via type annotations that must be written in JSDoc comments.[7]
Ecosystem
Programming languages that transpile to JavaScript benefit from Closure Tools. For example, Closure Compiler helps to make ClojureScript practical by making the compiled JavaScript code more efficient.[8]
Closure Library
The Closure Library is a JavaScript library, written specifically to take advantage of the Closure Compiler, based on a modular architecture. It provides cross-browser functions for DOM manipulations and events, Ajax and JSON, as well as more high-level objects such as User Interface widgets and Controls.
Closure Templates
Closure Templates are a templating system for dynamically generating HTML in both Java[9] and JavaScript.[10]
Because the language was apparently referred to as "Soy" internal to Google, and "Soy" remains in some of the documentation and classes,[11] sometimes Closure Templates are referred to as "Soy Templates".
Closure Stylesheets
This is a compiler which provides an extended version of CSS, which is compiled down to ordinary CSS. Internally in Google, this extended version of CSS is referred to as GSS.
References
- "Introducing Closure Tools - The official Google Code blog". 5 November 2009.
- "GitHub - google/closure-compiler: A JavaScript checker and optimizer". 3 April 2019 – via GitHub.
- Bolin, Michael, "Closure: The Definitive Guide", O'Reilly Media Inc., Sebastopol, CA, 2010
- "FAQ - Closure Tools". Google Developers.
- "Online closure compiler".
- "Closure compiler API".
- "Annotating JavaScript for the Closure Compiler".
- "Motivations for using Google's Closure Tools".
- "Hello World Using Java". Google Developers.
- https://code.google.com/closure/templates/docs/helloworld_js.html JavaScript
- "Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting". code.google.com.