[theme-reviewers] Child themes discussion

[Otto]

On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 2:01 PM, Philip M. Hofer (Frumph)
<philip at frumph.net> wrote:
> 1) Child themes names (should/must) be the theme name of the parent - child
> theme name   example:   suffusion-taskmaster   easel-wildcard
> twentyten-onehundredkillers

I'd be reluctant on that one. We will be displaying that a theme is a
child of another in some other way (I'm thinking of adding a blue
button to link to the parent) , so having a naming convention, though
attractive, is an unnecessary restriction. I'd be happier allowing any
name.

> AND/OR/WITH)  The uploader should be modified some how to prefix the tickets
> with child-  (and check for parents existance)

That will definitely be in there somehow.

> 3) template:  <parentname>  must clearely be defined

Additional: parentname must conform to the slug of the theme in the
directory. This is non-negotiable, the slug is how we know what the
themes are and also the directory name used on them. Everything relies
on it.

> 6) (if) a functions.php exists, it must be compatible with the latest
> version of the parent theme

On this note, it might be a good idea to start suggesting that all
themes with functions.php files be child-able. By this, I mean that
everything in the functions.php should be in a hooked function or have
a if !defined / !function_exists wrapper around it. Some best
practices could be drawn up.

> 7) (if) parent theme is updated, all child themes must be updated within a
> reasonable amount of time to fit with the current parent if applicable ?

That a reasonable question: How to handle breakage. Parents can make
radical changes that will break children. Maybe create a list of
themes that are "designed to be parents"? Dunno.

-Otto