Interesting that you should bring this topic up for discussion; I added it as a bullet point on Jane's WordPress in 2011 forum post.<div><br></div><div>I think that the Repository should accommodate Theme Frameworks - but only with the understanding that Frameworks are NOT stand-alone Themes.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Chip<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 1:12 PM, Otto <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:otto@ottodestruct.com">otto@ottodestruct.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Just floating an idea out there, but does it make any sense to<br>
disallow "theme frameworks" from the theme directory? Obviously this<br>
depends on the specifics of the framework/theme in question, but I've<br>
noticed a few frameworks that really lend themselves to building very<br>
similar themes.<br>
<br>
Now, before anybody gets up in arms, I'm thinking of this along the<br>
same lines as how we disallow generated themes. Some (not all)<br>
frameworks lend themselves to theme creation using a templating type<br>
mechanism, where you're not so much creating a theme layout as you are<br>
defining a layout and letting the framework do the work. And while<br>
that's fine for a custom site, it doesn't strike me as okay for a<br>
theme designed for general use.<br>
<br>
Ideally, a framework would be nothing more than a big bunch of handy<br>
utility functions, but more and more I'm seeing these frameworks that<br>
do all the actual work, leaving the theme designer little to do but to<br>
plug in graphics and screw around with some minor CSS. That's fine for<br>
building one site, but when you send that to a bunch of users, then<br>
they're getting all this backend stuff that a) they don't know and b)<br>
is outside the scope of the WordPress theme spec itself.<br>
<br>
I guess what I'm trying to say is that if there is some commonplace<br>
functionality that these frameworks are providing and which theme<br>
users need, we should abstract that out and put it into the core code,<br>
then let theme devs use it there. Sending complex and weird frameworks<br>
to the users doesn't strike me as a good thing. Frameworks should be<br>
used for custom site development, not for general<br>
everybody-can-download-this-theme usage.<br>
<br>
This is just an idea, not a guideline. Discuss.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
-Otto<br>
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