Here's where the Review process gets incredibly subjective. Code can be derivative, just as design can be derivative. I see at least three reasons to consider the derivative nature of a work:<div><br></div><div>1) To preserve rightful copyright (and license freedoms)</div>
<div>2) To ensure that the Repository does not become flooded with what amount to different "skins" of the same Theme</div><div>3) To ensure code is used purposefully, rather than merely copy-pasta. Code that is copied just because it was "there" in the original Theme is less likely to be understood, and therefore more likely to be implemented incorrectly (or needlessly), and also more likely to become a risk to security or robustness of the Theme.</div>
<div><br></div><div>So: working from each other's best practices, and not re-inventing wheels: definitely a good thing! But we still have to consider the above caveats (and there may be others).</div><div><br></div><div>
Chip<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 2:26 PM, Ian Stewart <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ian@iandanielstewart.com">ian@iandanielstewart.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im">On 2011-10-04, at 1:57 PM, Chip Bennett wrote:<br>
<br>
> Well, in an ideal world, we would be able to tell via the Copyright/License attribution trail. Unfortunately, we don't live in that ideal world. :)<br>
><br>
> The derivatives of Twenty Ten and Twenty Eleven are generally pretty easy to spot, once you've spent some time in the code for both (likewise with past default Themes, such as Kubrick and Default). With others, it's more a matter of just eyeballing a ton of Themes, and starting to recognize patterns. (Code in functions.php is usually fairly telling, as is the markup for the Loop and for comments.)<br>
<br>
</div>Are "derivative" themes just themes that use mostly the same code? Not counting the design? I thought the idea of keeping out derivative themes was to keep out re-colored default themes. I say this as someone who thinks it'd be awesome if more themes used 99% of the code in every default theme template. It'd make the review process better for all involved and make it easier for awesome designers to distribute awesome themes without having to be the awesomest coders.<br>
<br>
Also, I'm pretty sure every theme I've ever made or worked on is largely derivative code-wise. Thankfully.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Ian<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5">_______________________________________________<br>
theme-reviewers mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:theme-reviewers@lists.wordpress.org">theme-reviewers@lists.wordpress.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers" target="_blank">http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>