i have a deploy script written in Fabric ( fabfile )
it handles a bunch of things like:
- minify js and css
- create symlinks for directories as needed
- etc
generally i do one - or both - of the following:
1) instead of static, i have /-static-source /static-production
2) a symlink in 'develop' mode links /static to /-static-source ; in
'production' mode, it works on 'source' files and exports them to
'production' - which is them symlinked to static
3) i also set a 'is_production' flag on the request object, and alter
templates like that
I opted for a flag and template logic, because on production systems I
want to concatenate as many of the CSS and JS files as possible to
minimize server requests. switching between a.js and a.min.js is a
step in the right direction, but i want my production to have a+b+c+d+e
+f.min.js
that being said == it's very rare that you should ever need to use a
non-minified version of jquery or most plugins. the production
versions have all the same debug capabilities, the non-minified
versions are really there for people to hack on the core.