Is it bad to Base62 encode a javascript file?

Question

I just found Dean Edwards javascript packer here: http://dean.edwards.name/packer/

It has a couple of options,

1. Base62 encode
2. Shrink variable

Answer 1

It does create more work on the client. The client has to run the code to decode the encoded script. This is pretty obvious if you enter just a little bit of code in the encoding block.

For example:

var a = 10;

Encodes as:

eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,r){e=String;if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--)r[c]=k[c]||c;k=[function(e){return r[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--)if(k[c])p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c]);return p}('0 1=2;',3,3,'var|a|10'.split('|'),0,{}))