Add a webserver for serving files during development.

Makefile

 # You can set these variables from the command line.
 BOWER           ?= node_modules/.bin/bower
-BUILDDIR     	= ./docs
-PAPER        	=
+BUILDDIR        = ./docs
+PAPER           =
 PHANTOMJS       ?= ./node_modules/.bin/phantomjs
-SPHINXBUILD  	?= ./bin/sphinx-build
-SPHINXOPTS   	=
-PO2JSON       	?= ./node_modules/.bin/po2json
-SASS 			?= sass 
+SPHINXBUILD     ?= ./bin/sphinx-build
+SPHINXOPTS      =
+PO2JSON         ?= ./node_modules/.bin/po2json
+SASS            ?= sass 
 GRUNT           ?= ./node_modules/.bin/grunt
+HTTPSERVE		?= ./node_modules/.bin/http-server
 
 # Internal variables.
 ALLSPHINXOPTS   = -d $(BUILDDIR)/doctrees $(PAPEROPT_$(PAPER)) $(SPHINXOPTS) ./docs/source
@@ -19,18 +20,27 @@ I18NSPHINXOPTS  = $(PAPEROPT_$(PAPER)) $(SPHINXOPTS) ./docs/source
 all: dev
 
 help:
-	@echo "Please use \`make <target>' where <target> is one of"
-	@echo "  dev        to set up the development environment"
+	@echo "Please use \`make <target>' where <target> is one of the following"
 	@echo "  build      create minified builds containing converse.js and all its dependencies"
-	@echo "  gettext    to make PO message catalogs of the documentation"
-	@echo "  html       to make standalone HTML files of the documentation"
-	@echo "  pot        to generate a gettext POT file to be used for translations"
-	@echo "  po         to generate gettext PO files for each i18n language"
-	@echo "  po2json    to generate JSON files from the language PO files"
-	@echo "  release    to make a new minified release"
-	@echo "  linkcheck  to check all documentation external links for integrity"
-	@echo "  epub       to export the documentation to epub"
-	@echo "  changes    to make an overview of all changed/added/deprecated items added to the documentation"
+	@echo "  changes    make an overview of all changed/added/deprecated items added to the documentation"
+	@echo "  css        generate CSS from the Sass files"
+	@echo "  dev        set up the development environment"
+	@echo "  epub       export the documentation to epub"
+	@echo "  gettext    make PO message catalogs of the documentation"
+	@echo "  html       make standalone HTML files of the documentation"
+	@echo "  linkcheck  check all documentation external links for integrity"
+	@echo "  cssmin     minify the CSS files"
+	@echo "  po         generate gettext PO files for each i18n language"
+	@echo "  po2json    generate JSON files from the language PO files"
+	@echo "  pot        generate a gettext POT file to be used for translations"
+	@echo "  release    make a new minified release"
+	@echo "  serve      serve this directory via a webserver on port 8000"
+
+########################################################################
+## Miscellaneous
+
+serve: dev
+	$(HTTPSERVE) -p 8000
 
 ########################################################################
 ## Translation machinery
@@ -49,12 +59,6 @@ po2json:
 ########################################################################
 ## Release management
 
-jsmin:
-	./node_modules/requirejs/bin/r.js -o src/build.js && ./node_modules/requirejs/bin/r.js -o src/build-no-locales-no-otr.js && ./node_modules/requirejs/bin/r.js -o src/build-no-otr.js && ./node_modules/requirejs/bin/r.js -o src/build-website.js
-
-cssmin:
-	$(GRUNT) cssmin
-
 release:
 	sed -i s/Project-Id-Version:\ Converse\.js\ [0-9]\.[0-9]\.[0-9]/Project-Id-Version:\ Converse.js\ $(VERSION)/ locale/converse.pot
 	sed -i s/\"version\":\ \"[0-9]\.[0-9]\.[0-9]\"/\"version\":\ \"$(VERSION)\"/ bower.json
@@ -95,6 +99,12 @@ dev: clean
 css::
 	$(SASS) sass/converse.scss > css/converse.css
 
+jsmin:
+	./node_modules/requirejs/bin/r.js -o src/build.js && ./node_modules/requirejs/bin/r.js -o src/build-no-locales-no-otr.js && ./node_modules/requirejs/bin/r.js -o src/build-no-otr.js && ./node_modules/requirejs/bin/r.js -o src/build-website.js
+
+cssmin:
+	$(GRUNT) cssmin
+
 build::
 	$(GRUNT) jst
 	$(GRUNT) minify

Makefile.win

 # You can set these variables from the command line.
-GRUNT   ?= node_modules\.bin\grunt.cmd
+GRUNT   		?= node_modules\.bin\grunt.cmd
 BOWER           ?= node_modules\.bin\bower
 PHANTOMJS       ?= node_modules\.bin\phantomjs
 SASS 			?= sass 
-RMRF ?= rmdir /q /s 
-RMF ?= del /q 
+RMRF 			?= rmdir /q /s 
+RMF 			?= del /q 
+HTTPSERVE		?= ./node_modules/.bin/http-server
 
 .PHONY: all help clean css minjs build
 
 all: dev
 
 help:
-	@echo "Please use \`make <target>' where <target> is one of"
+	@echo "Please use \`make <target>' where <target> is one of the following"
 	@echo "  dev        to set up the development environment"
 	@echo "  build      create minified builds containing converse.js and all its dependencies"
+	@echo "  serve      to serve this directory via a webserver on port 8000"
+
+########################################################################
+## Miscellaneous
+
+serve:
+	$(HTTPSERVE) -p 8000
 
 ########################################################################
 ## Install dependencies

package.json

@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
     "grunt-contrib-requirejs": "~0.4.3",
     "grunt-json": "^0.1.3",
     "grunt-touch": "^0.1.0",
+    "http-server": "^0.7.4",
     "less": "~1.7.0",
     "phantom-jasmine": "0.1.8",
     "phantomjs": "~1.9.7-1",