Amen to that, but i don't think that WYWSIWYG's are evil, they are just another form of laziness. ;) I recently used Fireworks and Dreamweaver to create the templates for a website. I was handed two Photoshop files that contained the entire front page and an auxiliary page. I used Fireworks to splice up the images, and (even though Fireworks generates HTML) Dreamweaver to create the HTML. Next, add the template tags, and start coding your design. Honestly, i should mention that i had to use PHP for this site, but i was able to utilize PHP-HTML::Template.

Another simpler (and free) way to start off templates is with HTML Tidy. Forgive my bias of operating systems:

$ echo 1 | tidy -asxhtml > skeleton.tmpl
[download]

Of course, remaining XHTML compliant is up to you after that, but shouldn't be hard with tools like validator.w3.org available.

One of the kicks i get out of using HTML::Template (well, templates in general) is that i can atcually switch my "mode of thinking": when i am working on the script/module i think like a programmer, but when i am working on the template i think more like a programmer thinking like a designer. ;)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)