Alternatives to uglify-js for rehype-minify

[shellscape]

Since uglify has significant issues with a number of bundlers including ESBuild mishoo/UglifyJS#5764, which means issues running in environments like Lambda, I wanted to pop in to see if there's any openness to swapping out uglify for something a bit more modern - perhaps terser. This is something that I would be willing to contribute, but wanted to gauge how open the project is to that.

[ChristianMurphy]

Hey @shellscape 👋

Speaking for myself, I'm open to it.
A few options come to mind.

• https://terser.org/
• https://babeljs.io/docs/babel-preset-minify
• https://swc.rs/docs/configuration/minification
• https://esbuild.github.io/api/#minify

unified projects tend to be node first, so an option like swc or esbuild could be on the table.
Though a JavaScript first implementation, while slower, could make browser support a bit easier, without needing wasm.

[remcohaszing]

Babel minify is still in beta and hasn’t been updated in two years. I wouldn’t bet on that. UglifyJS doesn’t have a lot activity either. IMO terser is the safest bet.

[wooorm]

Yes, I also like terser. As far as I know it's well maintained. And JS only. And I believe it works in browsers!

[wooorm]

Anyway, yeah: definitely open! I think terser is a good tool to use. If someone wants to work on it, 👍