[development] Administration Survey: Theme improvements, theme help system, theme mailing list

[Dries Buytaert]

On 30 Nov 2005, at 21:10, Kieran Lal wrote:
> As part of the Drupal administration user experience survey we  
> identified Drupal theme issues as the most difficult administration  
> issues( http://www.surveymonkey.com/DisplaySummary.asp? 
> SID=1425065&U=142506581557).   There was some confusion about the  
> results so Trae McCombs, from CivicSpace Labs, conducted six  
> additional theme development interviews.

> 2) Improved the project module to allow for categorization so that  
> themes can be categorized to help themers pick a solid base theme.  
> Designed by Dries and implemented by Nedjo Rogers for CivicSpace  
> Labs.  This is coming in the next few weeks on Drupal.org.

Nedjo setup a demo site, so if you have some time, please help us  
test and review this functionality.  The project module improvements  
are a high-priority task.  Check out the issue tracker of the project  
module for details, or Nedjo's recent call for help on the mailing list.

> 4) Created a support channel #cstheme to support development of the  
> CivicSpace theme.  This may lead to a dedicated Drupal theme channel.

occy started a #drupal-themes on FreeNode.

> 7) Requested a themers mailing list to focus specifically on the  
> tasks of Drupal theme development

I created this mailing list.

> I'll leave you with a quote:
> Dries_:it's the reason I didn't convert buytaert.net yet -- it  
> takes too f*****g long to make a theme

Unfortunately, it's the true.  Think about it.  Drupal's strength is  
that you can setup and deploy a site in a couple hours ... if you go  
with one of the few existing themes, that is.  I converted  
buytaert.net's content (including the photo galleries) to Drupal CVS  
in about two hours.  Now it will take me ten times as much time to  
create a good looking theme.  Having to create a Drupal theme really  
turns me off.

Making it easier to create a unique, good-looking theme in a matter  
of hours is a key challenge for the Drupal community.  Glad to see  
CSL is taking steps to grow the number of quality themes.  And thank  
God we have visionaries like Adrian, who will hopefully continue to  
stun us with sweeping theme system improvements.

--
Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/