[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #31693: Feature Request - Child theme as standard feature

[WordPress Trac]

#31693: Feature Request - Child theme as standard feature
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 Reporter:  W.P. Ginfo       |       Owner:
     Type:  feature request  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Themes           |     Version:  4.1.1
 Severity:  normal           |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                   |     Focuses:
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Comment (by greenshady):

 Having done child themes for 8 years now and being one of the first people
 to promote the usage of them, I feel pretty confident in saying that this
 is not something ideal for core.  I've been able to see all the pitfalls
 and gotchas that plague users.  As an admin on the Theme Review Team, I
 can also tell you that such a feature would certainly break a large number
 of sites at this time.

 There really has to be a lot of assumptions made about the [parent] theme
 if core is going to start auto-generating child themes.  Namely, how
 styles are loaded is a major issue.  Theme authors have differing views on
 this, and many of them (including myself) are passionate about their own
 method.

 Not to mention, we'd still need to get theme authors to figure out the
 difference between the "stylesheet" and "template" directories.  I
 routinely catch themes utilizing the wrong function.  However, we've made
 great strides in correcting this with the Theme Review Team.  One fatal
 error caused by a theme author using `require_once(
 get_stylesheet_directory() . '/some-file.php' )` is one fatal error too
 many because the blame gets shifted away from the theme onto core.

 When it comes right down to it, child themes are the secondary, not
 primary, method that we should be promoting to users.  Something like
 Jetpack's custom CSS module or another CSS plugin is a far better method
 for today's average user.  Once a user feels comfortable enough modifying
 anything beyond CSS (e.g., PHP within the theme files), they really should
 be comfortable creating a basic child theme or using something like the
 Child Theme Configurator plugin.

 A dismissable message on the theme editor in the admin that the user is
 about to edit their theme files is a better solution to me.  This could
 include a link to a page on WordPress.org about using a CSS plugin or
 creating a child theme.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/31693#comment:8>
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