[wp-hackers] Building on WP without modifying the wp source

[Niklas Saers]

Hi,
I'm sorry if this is a thoroughly discussed topic, if so, please just 
send me a pointer, I've been unable to find good information on this 
through Google or WP support forum.

I'm currently following 1.3-cvs after nuking my 1.2 setup. Reason for 
the nuke was that I love fiddeling with plugins, but each plugin seems 
to want to modify the wp core. For instance, the "static pages status?" 
discussion of this morning recommended a plugin that requires a 
replacement of wp-admin/plugins.php. Seems half of the plugins I try 
need to edit functions.php.

I was wondering what's the recommended way of building on WP. What would 
have been the correct way to build a plugin framework exention like 
http://stevarino.com/wp/framework/? What would be the correct way to add 
functions rather than to add them to functions.php?

The same question goes for themes. I'm currently using Kubrick as a base 
and make modifications upon that. Now, if I wanted to just be able to 
update the theme when, say version 1.3.1 comes, I have this idea that I 
should be able to just update the base but keep my modifications in 
place. Today I'd have to diff all files and figure out what's changed 
and apply it by hand. I really would prefer to replace the base and iron 
out whatever problems occur because of my changes.

Further more, is there any plans on adding a easy-to-install theme & 
plugin option (like select file, press upload, go...)? I know of several 
friends and familly members who like to toy with such things but who 
really shouldn't try to go into the html/css or php.

Cheers

    Nik