minifying javascript messes up characters

Question

I am trying to minify a .js file that includes code like this:

DIACRITICS = {"\u24B6":"A","\uFF21":"A","\u00C0":"A","\u00C1":"A","\u00C2":"A","\u1EA6":"A","\u1EA4":"A","\u1EAA":"A","\u1EA8":"A","\u00C3":"A","\u0100":"A","\u0102":"A","\u1EB0":"A","\u1EAE":"A","\u1EB4":"A","\u1EB2":"A","\u0226":"A","\u01E0":"A","\u00C4":"A","\u01DE":"A","\u1EA2":"A","\u00C5":"A","\u01FA":"A","\u01CD":"A","\u0200":"A","\u0202":"A","\u1EA0":"A","\u1EAC":"A","\u1EB6":"A","\u1E00":"A","\u0104":"A","\u023A":"A","\u2C6F":"A","\uA732":"AA","\u00C6":"AE", ....

The problem is, when I use a tool like http://javascript-minifier.com/ or http://refresh-sf.com/ to minify it, the above code gets changed to this:

,j={"Ⓐ":"A","Ａ":"A","À":"A","Á":"A","Â":"A","Ầ":"A","Ấ":"A","Ẫ":"A","Ẩ":"A","Ã":"A","Ā":"A","Ă":"A","Ằ":"A","Ắ":"A","Ẵ":"A","Ẳ":"A","Ȧ":"A","Ǡ":"A","Ä":"A","Ǟ":"A","Ả":"A","Å":"A","Ǻ":"A","Ǎ":"A","Ȁ":"A","Ȃ":"A","Ạ":"A","Ậ":"A","Ặ":"A","Ḁ":"A","Ą"

I assume that will cause problems when it executes? Is there any way around this?

Answer 1

Try using Microsoft's AjaxMinifier: http://ajaxmin.codeplex.com/

This is to do with encoding, so use the program with the "-enc:out ascii" command.

Once you download the program, open it. It will appear like a command prompt window. CD to the directory of your JS file, then run:

ajaxminifier file.js -o file.min.js -enc:out ascii