Something to keep in mind with the adoption of the current version of WordPress is the stigmatism attached to a 'point-zero' release.<br><br>For the most part, the average user is easily swayed to believe that a point-zero release is buggy and not a great idea to upgrade to so they wait for the 'point-one' release. I use the term "average user" for the simple sake most users do not appreicate or understand the version numbering process used in WordPress.<br>
<br>If I wasn't involved as much as I am I would likely also consider myself one of those "average users" in thinking that 3.0 should be a wait and see unless you enjoy using buggy software (BTW, I think a lot of the blame can be attributed to nacin, or the good folk in that Washington state city *grin* ).<br>
<br>I think once WP3.1 is released and given a (possibly short) reasonable amount of time to be implemented we will start to see installations skewed much more towards 3.0+ than what we are seeing now.<br><br>As to backward compatibility in the Theme repository, IMHO one full version 30-60 days after one full release is about as far as would be needed. That gives authors the ability to address what needs to be changed (if anything) and minimizes the impact on the Theme Review process. Of course, this is related to the discussions that have been on-going for months regarding the Theme repository in general.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 10:31 AM, Marty Martin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:m@seoserpent.com">m@seoserpent.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Great round up post also on the review process. Nicely done.<div><br><font color="#888888">M</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 10:30 AM, Chip Bennett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chip@chipbennett.net" target="_blank">chip@chipbennett.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">It's definitely something that needs to be looked at in the future. I don't imagine any immediate Guidelines revisions will result; as you'll quickly discover: we use this list to kick around thoughts, ideas, and concerns - some of which end up impacting the Guidelines, and some that don't. :)<div>
<br></div><div><font color="#888888">Chip</font><div><div></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 9:27 AM, Marty Martin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:m@seoserpent.com" target="_blank">m@seoserpent.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Forgot to add, maybe tabling this for the next release would be a good idea and at that point, maybe 3.0 adoption will be higher.<div><br><font color="#888888">M</font><div><div></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 10:27 AM, Marty Martin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:m@seoserpent.com" target="_blank">m@seoserpent.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">I'm fine with themes being backward-compatible, I am just balking at us (read: <i>me</i>) having to check it. ;)<div>
<br></div><div><font color="#888888">Marty</font><div><div></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 10:25 AM, Chip Bennett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chip@chipbennett.net" target="_blank">chip@chipbennett.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">Interestingly, the stats indicate:<div><br></div><div>3.0: 49.1%</div><div>2.9: 27.3%</div>
<div>2.8: 10.6%</div><div><br>
</div><div>So, basically:</div><div><br></div><div>3.0: 50%</div><div>2.9+: 76%</div><div>2.8+: 87%</div>
<div><br></div><div>That probably gives us a pretty good indication of where the overall userbase is.</div><div><br></div><div>While I would <i>prefer</i> that we say *no* backward-compatibility, it is <i>reasonable </i>to allow backward-compatibility for up to one major revision, as it would cover 3/4 of the overall userbase.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Of course, this is a strange release cycle, since we basically skipped an entire development cycle. So, maybe we revisit this after 3.1 and then again after 3.2?</div><div><br></div><div><font color="#888888">Chip</font><div>
<div></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 9:17 AM, Marty Martin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:m@seoserpent.com" target="_blank">m@seoserpent.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Wait, other people use WordPress? :P<div><br></div><div>Yeah, I get what you're saying, but it's kind of like IE6 backward-compatibility. At some point, you've just got to quit offering it. It's a process and security issue that we don't want to encourage. I understand that if I personally want to run Windows 3.11 on my machine, I can, but I'm not going to be able to get the "latest and greatest" software to run on it.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I will join you in between this rock and hard place. :D</div><div><br></div><font color="#888888"><div>M</div></font><div><div></div><div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 10:12 AM, Chip Bennett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chip@chipbennett.net" target="_blank">chip@chipbennett.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">Oh, in principle and in general, I agree. And, the official Theme Repository should not be encouraging users' procrastination in keeping their WP installs up-to-date.<div>
<br></div><div>But, we're also, as a subset of the overall WP install base, much more likely to be early adopters of each new WP version. We do have to keep in mind that 50% of the WP install base is currently using pre-3.0 versions of WP.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Personally, I would like to see Repository-hosted Themes have no backward compatibility prior to the current major version - and I would like to see Extend display "Requires" and "Tested Up To" tags like the ones displayed for Plugins. But, we have to balance our population-subset desires with the realities of the overall population.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Chip</div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 9:07 AM, Marty Martin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:m@seoserpent.com" target="_blank">m@seoserpent.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Personally I don't give a crap if other users aren't upgrading their WP, but upgrades to core happen for many reasons (security is a good one) and there's not much point in releasing a theme for a version of WP you can't (easily) get any more. Plus, I don't want to have to deal with trying to figure out if a theme is compatible with 2.9 when I run 3.0.1 on all of my sites, including my theme checking site. :o)<div>
<br></div><div>My $0.02.</div><div><br></div><div><font color="#888888">Marty</font><div><div></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 10:02 AM, Chip Bennett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chip@chipbennett.net" target="_blank">chip@chipbennett.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">Perhaps we should indicate an allowable age of backward-compatibility support? What's the right answer here?<div>
<br>
</div><div>1) Themes must support current major WP version only (e.g. 3.0, not 2.9.x)</div><div>2) Themes may support a certain number of previous major WP versions (e.g. for 3.0, Themes may provide backward-compatibility for 2.9.x, or 2.8.x)</div>
<div>3) Themes may provide backward-compatibility as old as the Developer wishes to support</div><div><br></div><div>I think One might be a bit restrictive, and difficult to enforce (WP 3.0 adoption is at just over 49%, 4 months after release), but certainly easiest on the Review Team. I think Three would be way too difficult to manage, and would end up causing nightmares for the automated checks (Theme Check and the Uploader Script), due to backward-compatibility support for deprecated functions. So, it would seem to me that Two is the most viable option.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The question is: how far back?</div><div><br></div><div>Chip</div><div> <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 8:28 AM, Gene Robinson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:emhr@submersible.me" target="_blank">emhr@submersible.me</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;">A quick draft item has been added to the Theme Review ...<br>
<br><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Review#Site_Information" target="_blank">http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Review#Site_Information</a></span></blockquote><div><br></div></div>Looks good. I think it would be a service to theme developers to state that bloginfo('url') is a wrapper for home('url') that provides backward compatibility for versions < 3.0 Although an opposing argument might view this as enabling people to hold out on upgrading WP.<div>
<br></div><div>@Nacin - When you review <a href="http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1596" target="_blank">Simply Works Core 1.3.3</a> , I'd appreciate your going-over my <a href="http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1566" target="_blank"></a>previous review's <a href="http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1566" target="_blank">suggestions</a>.</div>
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