[wp-hackers] RE: 2.1 Ongoing Work

[Andy Beard]

Widgets for me is like a stub in Wikipedia. The idea is there, but it hasn't
really been followed through

My biggest problem with Widgets is that theme authors have to design their
themes to support it, many support it partially, I don't think any theme
publisher supports it as well as it could be implemented. Most themes have
one sidebar for all files, and many Widget implementations only place
widgets on index.php

The current API allows a theme author to have a different sidebar on every
template, if they designed their theme that way.

An extended version of Widgets could effectively be used to cover editing
other page elements, including within the loop, before or after comments, in
the header or footer.

The problem is that theme authors would have to support all the added
functionality, and it invalidates all the great work done in the past. 

Widgets isn't the only way a total solution could be achieved as I discussed
in my recent post "Constant problems with plugins and hooks"

I am a believer that a solution is necessary - I absolutely hate having to
retinker every aspect of a page if I switch theme, and especially having to
do it all again with each new blog I start. It is great if you only have 1
blog to worry about, but if you have 10+ it starts getting frustrating.

A smart implementation of Widgets which handles all aspects of tweaking on
every template would reduce a lot of the barriers to updating to new
versions of wordpress.

Widgets is just a first generation solution, and is not a complete solution
because there is an inate barrier for theme authors to implement it totally.

So why not in the core?

It puts an additional barrier to adoption of alternative solutions or
improvements. 



Charles-32 wrote:
> 
>> I have no problems with Widgets being bundled, but I wouldn't want
>> it as part of the core.
> 
> Do you have a single legitimate reason for wanting to keep such crucial
> core
> functionality out of the core?
> 
> -- Charles
> 
> 
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