I just wanted to point folks to the small project I started on Google code- Starter Assets.

It’s based on some work I did at Cramer to standardize the development process there. The idea was to provide a standard set of files and a standard file/folder structure for people to start with whenever they were initiating a new project. I’ve expanded on it in this case to (eventually) include several doctypes (right now it’s just xHTML strict- HTML5 will follow soon) and links to popular JavaScript libraries on the Google Ajax Library CDN (just jQuery for now.)*

To use, you’d just download or SVN export the folder that corresponds to the doctype/library combination that strikes your fancy and you’re good to go.

I’ve released it in advance of a blog series I mentioned during my JavaScript presentation this past Thursday. It’s a step-by-step tutorial on how I build web sites called, “Building a Modern Web Site.”

It’s going to feature all of the best practices I use wrapped into one series. I won’t get down in the weeds on HTML or CSS coding (although there will be some info about those subjects) as there’s a lot of info about specific technology out there from people smarter than me. It’s more about the overarching concepts on how we do things these days. From what I gather, a lot of the good overall tutorials on the web are from 10-12 years ago, so if you’re just starting out you’re piecing together best practices from a variety of different sources. I aim to change that.

Hopefully starting this week:)

Anyway, take a look at the files and let me know if I’ve broken anything. I rushed to get them on the web, so there’s definitely a possibility that I mangled the initial release.

*to do this properly I’m going to try to create a proper build system. Should be a fun and useful experiment.