[buddypress-trac] [BuddyPress] #3662: New child theme

[buddypress-trac at lists.automattic.com]

#3662: New child theme
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 Reporter:  DJPaul  |       Owner:
     Type:  task    |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal  |   Milestone:  1.6
Component:  Theme   |     Version:
 Severity:  normal  |  Resolution:
 Keywords:          |
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Comment (by chrisclayton):

 @karmatosed - Was downloading & uploading it while writing my last comment
 and have been playing with it ever since. :)

 @hnla - with your first point - i think we'll have to agree to disagree.
 All of my themes have been parent themes and they have worked fine... The
 only problem with maintaining a BuddyPress parent theme is that you have
 to keep global.js and ajax.php (and other scary files) up to date, and
 since this is a project run and maintained by the core BuddyPress team,
 that isn't really an issue.

 Maybe i'm wrong... Please enlighten me, what's the difference between a BP
 parent theme and a WordPress parent theme? (except that one requires a
 plugin - to fix that all you really need to do is kill the theme and
 display a notice if the user doesn't have BuddyPress active.

 "Re-factor the markup as much as possible from head to toe"
 To me, that IS the difference between a parent theme and a child theme.

 Here's a quote from Justin Tadlock that might help express my concerns...
 "When a theme developer creates a child theme, things become problematic
 because that child theme might eventually need an update. If you’re a
 theme developer and are building a child theme with a 20kb functions file
 and five or six custom templates, I can assure you that you’re doing it
 wrong. I’ve even had to tell myself this." -
 http://justintadlock.com/archives/2010/08/16/frameworks-parent-child-and-
 grandchild-themes

 When buddypress updates and we find a bug inside one of the complex
 looking functions in functions.php how are we going to update the theme?
 how are they going to customize their theme?

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Ticket URL: <https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/3662#comment:22>
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