The present invention is directed towards providing a system and method for optimizing HTML output in a just-in-time compiling environment for devices such as mobile devices. A method is provided for optimizing the output in a single pass as device content is rendered. The method delays writing a closing tag until it is determined that a formatting or layout of the next control conflicts. Tags are emitted in a predefined order to minimize the number of tags that will need to be closed to accommodate a following control whose style differs. Object hierarchy is leveraged to predict the order in which tags should be written without looking ahead of the current control in the hierarchy.