[theme-reviewers] Theme Frameworks and the directory

[justin at justintadlock.com]

I don't really think users need to know they're using a framework at
all. Themes submitted here need to be unique. The theme itself should
handle all the things that make the actual theme -- markup and design.

Here's three themes built off the same framework that are completely
different:
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/prototype
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/news
http://justintadlock.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/retro-fitted.zip
(submitting soon)

What frameworks (not parent themes) are actually out there though?
Hybrid Core, WP Framework, and Carrington are the only three I know
about and each of these are about handling the "logic" behind the theme
or adding utility functions, leaving HTML and CSS open to developers. 


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [theme-reviewers] Theme Frameworks and the directory
From: Otto <otto at ottodestruct.com>
Date: Thu, December 30, 2010 1:12 pm
To: WP Theme Reviewers Mailing List
<theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>

Just floating an idea out there, but does it make any sense to
disallow "theme frameworks" from the theme directory? Obviously this
depends on the specifics of the framework/theme in question, but I've
noticed a few frameworks that really lend themselves to building very
similar themes.

Now, before anybody gets up in arms, I'm thinking of this along the
same lines as how we disallow generated themes. Some (not all)
frameworks lend themselves to theme creation using a templating type
mechanism, where you're not so much creating a theme layout as you are
defining a layout and letting the framework do the work. And while
that's fine for a custom site, it doesn't strike me as okay for a
theme designed for general use.

Ideally, a framework would be nothing more than a big bunch of handy
utility functions, but more and more I'm seeing these frameworks that
do all the actual work, leaving the theme designer little to do but to
plug in graphics and screw around with some minor CSS. That's fine for
building one site, but when you send that to a bunch of users, then
they're getting all this backend stuff that a) they don't know and b)
is outside the scope of the WordPress theme spec itself.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if there is some commonplace
functionality that these frameworks are providing and which theme
users need, we should abstract that out and put it into the core code,
then let theme devs use it there. Sending complex and weird frameworks
to the users doesn't strike me as a good thing. Frameworks should be
used for custom site development, not for general
everybody-can-download-this-theme usage.

This is just an idea, not a guideline. Discuss.

-Otto
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