[wp-hackers] front-page.php always overrides home.php?

[Otto]

On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 4:36 PM, Austin Matzko <austin at ilfilosofo.com> wrote:
> In what sense is home.php "deprecated"?  It's the first template file
> searched for by get_home_template().
>
> Also, being able to set the front page doesn't take away from the
> purpose of home.php, which is to provide a template for the posts
> landing page, which might be distinct from the front page.  The
> home.php template if perfectly legitimate as a place to show the
> posts' landing page.  Otherwise, if you have separate home and front
> pages, one has to specifically assign a page template to the "home"
> page.  The home.php template saves users that extra step.

Okay, so "deprecated" was probably a bad choice of term. Unnecessary,
perhaps, since index.php serves all the same functions as well as
being a backup to every other page as well. There's nothing you can do
with a home.php that you can't do without it, usually more cleanly.
Home.php is more or less a remnant from when we didn't have the option
to make a Page on the Front of the site.

BTW, Page Templates don't work for Posts set to be on Page urls.

-Otto