[buddypress-dev] BuddyPress theme development

[Chris Taylor - stillbreathing.co.uk]

Hi all,

I've coded the beginnings of a new theme for BuddyPress:
http://buddypress.stillbreathing.co.uk/wp-content/themes/dark/profile.html.
Obviously there's quite a bit to do with blogs, groups etc, but I'm
quite pleased so far.

However I think quite a lot could be done to make the theme code
better, so the use of HTML and CSS is easier and more intuitive - and
so it lends itself to increasing levels of complexity. I've had to
change a couple of bits in the HTML of the profile page as I didn't
want to spend hours hacking CSS! So it was obvious to me that the end
HTML could be more flexible.

I'd be happy to spend a bit of time with the theme making sure that
the class names and IDs are put together in such a way to make style
writing a bit easier. I'll almost certainly base the revised theme on
the Blueprint CSS framework (http://www.blueprintcss.org/) as it gives
lots of flexibility with layout. I guess that many users of BP won't
want to write a full theme, just amend the CSS for the default one (as
the theme is a lot more complex than a standard WP one). I'd also
build in a load of microformat goodness, in the same way that Sandbox
(http://www.plaintxt.org/themes/sandbox/) have.

The idea is that if the default theme has all the flexibility and
power built in that people could want, they'll be much more likely to
feel able to try out BuddyPress. Lowering the barrier of entry is a
Good Thing.

So, any thoughts?

Chris