Directive template with comment throws multiple root element error because jqLite thinks whitespace after comment is a node

[CxRes]

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Do you want to request a feature or report a bug?
Bug

What is the current behavior?
If one tries to load a directive with a top-level comment angular throws an error
Error: [$compile:tplrt] Template for directive 'myDirective' must have exactly one root element

This happens because jqLite thinks that the whitespace between the comment node and html node is a text node. In the removeComments() function before template invocation, the text template is converted into jqLite object, where the array contains three objects [comment, text, div]. Only the comment node gets removed and the presence of two remaining nodes throws this error.

I guess this should be fixed in jqLite but for now I have suggested a simple fix (see below after the next question)

Which versions of Angular, and which browser / OS are affected by this issue? Did this work in previous versions of Angular? Please also test with the latest stable and snapshot (https://code.angularjs.org/snapshot/) versions.
Using 1.5.8 in nwjs 0.16.1 on Windows 10

Other information (e.g. stacktraces, related issues, suggestions how to fix)
Change the test in removeComments()

if (node.nodeType === NODE_TYPE_COMMENT)

to

if (node.nodeType === NODE_TYPE_COMMENT || (node.nodeType === NODE_TYPE_TEXT && node.nodeValue.trim() === '' ))

[gkalpak]

It has nothing to do with jqLite, actually; jqLite is correct (there is indeed a text node).
It is a $compile issue.

Since we are already trimming the template (see compile.js#L2546) and removing/ignoring comments, it makes sense to also remove whitespace around comment nodes.
I think your proposed fix is reasonable.

[BobChao87]

Would we only be interested in only removing the whitespace around comment nodes, or any top-level text node composed only of whitespace?