[development] New Themes for New Drupal

[Chris Johnson]

Jeff Robbins wrote:
> On Aug 29, 2006, at 6:25 AM, Neil Drumm wrote:


>> These themes need to be somewhere between "looks like Drupal" and 
>> "clean enough to build off of." What I see here looks like a full 
>> palate competing with the Drupal branding and the themer trying to 
>> find the shortest way to their own color scheme. It does look good, 
>> but too far from bluemarine to be a good default.
> 
> Please see: http://drupaltheme.lullabot.com/node?theme=zen-beach

I've hated bluemarine from the first time I saw it years ago right up to 
today.  I only ever use it because it works.  It's ugly.  It looks like 
something from the web in 1996.  If that's Drupal's branding, then Drupal is 
apparently well-known for having an ugly, out-of-date visual brand.  IMHO, of 
course.


>> - Styling form fields. These are notoriously inconsistent across 
>> platforms and I think are best left as-is anyway since form fields 
>> should always look like form fields.


> I'm not sure I totally agree on this point. Some browsers ignore styling 
> on form fields, so it is important to test on many browsers to see what 
> is truly happening. But I think that a little bit of styling, 
> particularly on form buttons can show a sense of style and maturity. 
> Certainly they can be styled out of the realm of usability, but I think 
> with a bit of testing, we can improve upon the nasty default button 
> styling of browsers like Firefox.
> 
> -jeff


Some day, all browser builders will get an f'ing clue, and allow controls to 
be styled properly.  Until then, I agree with Jeff -- some improvement on some 
browsers is better than none.  The one biggest thing that differentiates a 
well-written web application from a "real" binary application these days is 
the fugly form fields and controls.  Also, IMHO.


Respectfully yours,
Curmudgeonly GUI developer since 1977

..chrisxj