[wp-hackers] Theme and Plugin Integration

[Robert Deaton]

Well, my original intention with this was not for bundling other plugin 
author's work, but instead having a place that would function like a plugin 
so that theme authors could include some of their own special features that 
could only be done in a plugin without requiring the end user to go through 
extra work installing the theme. In the end, I suppose that this feature 
could hurt some plugin authors since their work would probably be forgotten 
and just passed off as a feature of the theme whose author didn't give props 
to the people who helped. I guess in the end something like this would 
probably be a matter of personal preference to the WP developers.

On Apr 3, 2005 3:16 PM, Jeff Minard <jeff at jrm.cc> wrote:
> 
> Owen Winkler wrote:
> > I've attached a core patch that will let theme developers add multiple
> > "Requires:" header lines to themes. This will allow WordPress to
> > display what plugins are required for that theme and detect whether a
> > function from that plugin (thus, the whole plugin) is available. The
> > format of the header line is:
> >
> > Requires: function_name plugin_url description
> 
> This is a great idea as it would allow us to continue the separation of
> theme/plugin directories. However...
> 
> 
> > Please take a minute to consider what including plugin code with a theme
> > denies the plugin authors - the only real incentive for their work, 
> credit.
> 
> You're totally correct. By packageing plugins within a theme, the theme
> author is likely to recieve credit for a plugins functionality unless
> they are very explicit in their declaration of who made what on the
> download page.
> 
> And I don't care. (And I make plugins, not themes)
> 
> This is not about ego boosting plugin authors; the solution of bundling
> plugins with themes is focused on the end user experience. One of the
> overriding goals of WP as a product is that it's easy to use *for
> anyone*. Allowing themes to package various plugins would allow theme
> authors to take advantage of a lot of extra WP features, while still
> making the process of using that theme very easy for the end user (at
> any technical level).
> 
> Your proposition, however, has users getting a theme, reading a bunch of
> technical info and bouncing from site to site to get the various things
> they'd need and in the end quite possibly saying, "Fuck it" and going
> back to Kubrick because it was "click and work".
> 
> *My* incentive for producing plugins is to give back to the WP community
> which has given me so much.
> 
> 
> Jeff
> 
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> 



-- 
--Robert Deaton
http://somethingunpredictable.com
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