[support] Why SubTheme?

[Fred Jones]

> These days, theme's are viewed much like contributed modules which code
> you usually do not alter but rather override in other places. Personally,
> I think themes are quite different from modules and that there's a good
> chance that future ameliorations of a theme produce unexpected results on
> your website but, nevertheless, this seems to be the current mainstream
> thinking nowadays.

Yes, that's exactly what I feel. I was always nervous that I will make
a subtheme and then in 2 months we will upgrade and then my client
will call me on the phone frantic that I "broke" page X. He won't know
that it's due to a CSS change in the new version of the theme.

Has anyone else experienced this? Or is it basically considered safe
to use a subtheme and rely on the main theme author not to do
something stupid?

Yes of course one should do upgrades on a test site etc. but everyone
knows that for a simple module upgrade, just making a backup of the DB
and old code should be enough--if something goes wrong, the site can
be restored in about 60 seconds. I would *tend* to think the same for
themes...

F