This is from a comment on the Advanced WordPress Facebook group by Kevin Hoffman.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with Roots, just a satisfied user.
In response to several recent questions on the topic of starter themes, the following are my thoughts on what I believe is the best starter theme available today, along with a heads-up on an upcoming resource that may help you in the near future.
Recommendations for starter themes come up quite often in AWP, and my first instinct is to recommend Roots' Sage starter theme (https://roots.io/sage/), but to be honest, it's not for everyone. I feel like I always have to attach the caveat concerning the prerequisites: Node.js, gulp, Bower, CSS preprocessing, build processes, etc. I often see advanced devs discouraging others from trying Sage if they're not 100% up to date on all of these tools. Don't let that scare you.
I'll be honest with you as a self-taught WordPress dev who just learned many of these tools in the past year. There is most certainly a time investment required to wrap your head around the purpose of each tool and how to use it within Sage, but the end result is the closest WordPress has come to adhering to best practices in modern web development. It's also the most efficient workflow I've come across yet from a starter theme.
The following are just a few of the time-saving features you get from Sage: theme wrapper, CSS/JS minification + concatenation, autoprefixer, image optimization and BrowserSync in an automated build process.
The existing documentation is suitable for experienced developers already familiar with the tools, but honestly it isn't as thorough as it could be when walking a newcomer through the process. That's why I wanted to share an upcoming ebook "Theme Development with Sage". If the quality of past Roots resources is any indication, I fully expect this ebook to be an answer to the caveat I mentioned earlier.
I'll share my thoughts on the ebook upon release, but in the meantime you can save $10 if you pre-order here: https://roots.io/books/theme-development-with-sage/
I hope this encourages you guys to take a look at revamping your workflow and give Sage a try. If you need any additional insight, comment below or PM me.
So your thoughts after reading this book? Was this a good read?