<p>Encoded themes are rejected during the upload process, any that make it through are rejected by the person reviewing the theme. </p>
<p>So don't worry, measures are already in place.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Apr 26, 2012 2:41 PM, "Andrew McGill" <<a href="mailto:list2010@lunch.za.net">list2010@lunch.za.net</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hi<br>
<br>
I notice that the theme standards do not say anything about code obfuscation and readability:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Review#Security_and_Privacy" target="_blank">http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Review#Security_and_Privacy</a><br>
<br>
I suggest the following guidelines:<br>
<br>
* No obfuscation: all code must written in human readable format: measures that reduce readability are not allowed. (e.g. variable name mangling, stripping indentation)<br>
<br>
* No hiding: All code must appear in regular .php files. No measures to obscure the code being run are permitted.<br>
<br>
The reason this would be helpful is that there are a lot of commercial themes of dubious quality employing various kinds of obfuscation - 85 levels of base64_decode and gzip hiding the closing div tags, wp_footer and the 'if $posts>20 (advertise())'. It is also pretty hard to distinguish "legitimate" obfuscation from a hacked site.<br>
<br>
It would make the world a happier place if <a href="http://wordpress.org" target="_blank">wordpress.org</a> said that code obfuscation is not-so-cool.<br>
<br>
Something should also be said about code obfuscation in javascript files too ... (e.g. the compressed version of jquery). I reckon it should be discouraged (if not prohibited).<br>
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</blockquote></div>