definitely not as the only/standard way of doing it. Is editing a node administrative? What if it's your own node? Someone else's? Will the theme sometimes change and sometimes not? How drastically does the theme change?
I would not discuss if editing a node is administrative, but I think we all can agree is that editing a node is something that happens in a not public environment - I think this is the criteria that should guide the decisions: * actions that are private happens in a private environment. This way, the user is not confused in terms like "anyone can edit this?", always knows when he's editing something. Moreover, I would think in making into core something like workplace.module: when I user logs into his account, he has an overview of all ot its "things" in the system (as WordPress or MT or many others "CMSs" do). * actions that are public, like posting comments, keep in the public area. Surely we will find actions that are not clear if they are public or private. Posting a forum topic is private but its comments are public? But its a start an a solid criteria, that, moreover, I think its a pattern that shows in many many other tools.
WordPress, for instance, has all of its administrivia physically separate from the user site, so having a dedicated admin theme makes perfect sense.
What does "physically" mean? An URL change only? Some corporate CMSs have the backend and the frontend in two different IPs in two different network interfaces (so that the backend one can be in an VPN with secure access): that's physically :) If the URL change is the only concern, I would not worry because the user doesn't mind if he's on admin* or *edit*. cheers, álvaro -- wwww > http://www.the-cocktail.com blog > http://www.furilo.com