I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, and I'm not sure anyone except maybe JP Lang would know the best course of action.
There are already some discussions about this topic
Like: Assets Pipeline
And there are already some efforts
https://github.com/Tab10id/redmine_plugin_asset_pipeline
Move existing application.js contents to some other file like base.js and include it via asset pipeline and enable plugins to add their own js to application.js as a manifest which would compile application.js later
So eventually it would look like this
// This is a manifest file that'll be compiled into application.js, which will include all the files// listed below.//// Any JavaScript/Coffee file within this directory, lib/assets/javascripts, vendor/assets/javascripts,// or any plugin's vendor/assets/javascripts directory can be referenced here using a relative path.//// It's not advisable to add code directly here, but if you do, it'll appear at the bottom of the// compiled file.//// Read Sprockets README (https://github.com/rails/sprockets#sprockets-directives) for details// about supported directives.////= require jquery//= require base//= require whatever from plugns...