[theme-reviewers] Twenty Ten Child 2010 Weaver V 1.2.1

[Bruce Wampler]

  A note about 2010 Weaver V 1.2

This new version of my theme has been in the queue for over 3 weeks now 
(ticket 366). It
is a "child" theme of Twenty Ten (actually, a "pseudo-child" since in 
included all the
code from Twenty Ten as well as its own code.)

Since I submitted V 1.2, Twenty Ten released Version 1.1 which had some 
minor fixes,
but generated a couple of also minor but visible incompatibilities with 
the child.

I just submitted 2010 Weaver 1.2.1 that includes the newest Twenty Ten 
1.1, and
fixes the incompatibilities. The new ticket is 541. I would like to 
respectfully request
that when the turn for ticket 366 comes up (it is just a few down at the 
moment) that
the version 1.2.1 be used instead, and not be sent to the end of the 
line. This change
was caused by the release of a new version of the parent.

This of course again brings up the issue of handling child themes. Which 
versions of
which parent/child themes are compatible? And after experiencing this 
very issue
with 2010 Weaver 1.2, I believe even more that the proper way to handle 
child
themes in the published library is to do it the way I have with 2010 
Weaver - leave
it up to the theme developer to included the files from the parent as 
well as the
child in a "pseudo-child". At least then when a new parent version is 
published, the
child theme will continue to work, even if it doesn't take advantage of 
whatever
is new in the parent.

In times when there is not a very long queue for reviews, a few days 
probably won't
matter if a new update of the child is needed. But when the queue is 
several weeks
long, or more, and the child is based on a major theme (like Twenty 
Ten), I think
it is fair to account for the special case of a parent's update 
requiring changes in
the child and not bump the new version all the way to the end of the queue.

And this really applies to any theme for that matter. If a theme author 
discovers
an issue with a theme in the queue, I think the revised version should 
retain
the original place in the queue. To do otherwise is to discourage 
authors from
supplying the best versions of their theme. I think many authors would 
rather see
their slightly buggy theme get reviewed as soon as possible, rather than 
submit
a revision that could delay the release of their theme for several weeks.

So rather than closing the first ticket, perhaps it should remain in the 
queue but
contain a comment and link to the newer version. When its turn comes up, 
then
all associated tickets can be closed.

Thanks for listening!

Bruce Wampler - wpweaver

-- 
-----------
Bruce Wampler, Ph.D.

Software developer
Creator of first spelling checker for a PC
Creator of Grammatik(tm), first true grammar checker
e-mail: bw at brucewampler.com
blog: brucewampler.wordpress.com