The HTML5 Boilerplate

Thursday, 12 August 2010 12:46

The talented Paul Irish and Divya Manian, just yesterday, released what they call the “HTML5 Boilerplate.” The product of years of experience, this is easily the most comprehensive starting template for every new project that I’ve ever seen.

According to Paul, himself:

Why it is Awesome?

• Cross-browser compatible (IE6, yeah we got that.)
• HTML5 ready. Use the new tags with certainty.
• Optimal caching and compression rules for grade-A performance
• Best practice site configuration defaults
• Mobile browser optimizations
• Progressive enhancement graceful degradation … yeah yeah we got that
• IE specific classes for maximum cross-browser control
• Handy .no-js and .js classes to style based on capability
• Want to write unit tests but lazy? A full, hooked up test suite is waiting for you.

Why it is Awesome-er?

• Javascript profiling…in IE6 and IE7? Sure, no problem.
• Console.log nerfing so you won’t break anyone by mistake.
• Never go wrong with your doctype or markup!
• An optimal print stylesheet, performance optimized
• iOS, Android, Opera Mobile-adaptable markup and CSS skeleton.
• IE6 pngfix baked in.
• .clearfix, .visuallyhidden classes to style things wisely and accessibly.
• .htaccess file that allows proper use of HTML5 features and faster page load
• CDN hosted jQuery with local fallback failsafe.
• Think there’s too much? The HTML5 Boilerplate is delete-key friendly.

The HTML5 Boilerplate can be downloaded here.