Tools

Juicer is a command line tool that helps you ship frontend code for production.

High level overview; Juicer can

* figure out which files depend on each other and merge them together, reducing the number of http requests per page view, thus improving performance
* use YUI Compressor to compress code, thus improving performance
* verify that your JavaScript is safe to minify/compress by running JsLint on it
* cycle asset hosts in CSS files
* add "cache busters" to URLs in CSS files
* recalculate relative URLs in CSS files, as well as convert them to absolute (or convert absolute URLs to relative URLs)

Modernizr uses feature detection to test the current browser against upcoming features like rgba(), border-radius, CSS Transitions and many more. These are currently being implemented across browsers and with Modernizr you can start using them right now, with an easy way to control the fallbacks for browsers that don’t yet support them.

Additionally, Modernizr creates a self-titled global JavaScript object which contains properties for each feature; if a browser supports it, the property will evaluate TRUE and if not, it will be FALSE.

Lastly, Modernizr also adds support for styling HTML 5 elements. This allows you to use more semantic, forward-looking elements such as , and without having to worry about them not working in Internet Explorer.

Modernizr does not add missing functionality to browsers; instead, it detects native availability of features and offers you a way to maintain a fine level of control over your site regardless of a browser’s capabilities.