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Jeff Chandler

WP Weekly Episode 41 – Interview With Scott Wallick

wordpressweeklylogo In episode 41 of WordPress Weekly, David Peralty and I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Scott Wallick, the creator of the veryplaintxt theme as well as the Sandbox theme. That’s right, David Peralty is my new co-host for WordPress Weekly which should be fun.

Ad Copy:This episode of WordPress Weekly is sponsored by, WebDevStudios.com. WebDevStudios is a website development company specializing in WordPress support and development services. Contact them today for help with your WordPress powered website.

Stories Discussed:

WordPress 2.7.1 RC 1 Released

WordPress Tavern Listener Poll:

Each week from now on, I’ll be featuring a new listener poll question on WPTavern.com The poll is located in the sidebar on the right hand side of the site.

Last weeks poll question was: Do you think configuration options need to be added to WordPress to configure Post Revisions?

With a total of 35 votes, 28 of you or 80% voted yes while 7 of you or 20% voted Let A Plugin Solve This Problem.

This Weeks Poll Question Is: Should The Sandbox Theme Be The Next Default Theme In WordPress?

Plugin Picks Of The Week:
Jeff –Post Templates – Post Templates is a plugin that enables you to save posts as templates. For example, say every Friday you create a Round Up type of post with numerous headings and sections. Using this plugin, you can save that particular post structure as a template for that post every Friday allowing you to save time from copy and pasting the text every week. You can also create Page templates as well.

David – Member Access – Member Access allows a WordPress administrator to make individual posts and pages accessible only to logged-in members. Member Access allows global configuration so that all posts or pages can be viewable by everyone (the default) or only by members, and it also allows each post and page to override the global setting. It is still in beta. I chose it because I think its better than the “passworded” posts that some blogs use

Announcements:
I will be giving away one Revolution site license courtesy of Brian Gardner to one lucky registered member of the forum. In order to win the giveaway, simply register an account on the WordPress Tavern Forum. I will then place all of registered Member IDs into a random number picker. Whichever member ID is chosen will be the winner. The winner will be contact by means of private message. If an ID is chosen which does not have an account attached to it, I will run the number picker again until a winner is selected. The winner will be announced next week on the Friday the 13th edition of WordPress Weekly.

WPWeekly Meta:

Next Episode: Friday February 13th, 2009 8P.M. EST

Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: Click here to subscribe

Length Of Episode: 1 Hour 6 Minutes

Download The Show: WordPressWeeklyEpisode41.mp3

Listen To Episode #41:

Category:
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7 responses to “WP Weekly Episode 41 – Interview With Scott Wallick”

  1. I don’t think that Sandbox should be the default theme. But I do think that Sandbox or another similar theme should come with WordPress instead of Classic to give designers a basic framework to start from.

    And Kubrick should certainly be retired! The backend of WordPress has had two major design overhauls in the year, and the frontend hasn’t changed a bit.

    WordPress’ biggest strength is its usability, my friends and clients all take to it with little to no instruction.

    The design and functionality of WordPress.org, all the related sites, and the backend of WordPress itself are all fresh and inviting.

    I think that WordPress needs a new default theme that is the equal of 2.7’s backend. Otherwise WordPress is like a rusted out old jalopy with a brand new engine and leather interior…

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  2. @JLeuze Hey JLeuze, thanks for commenting. What do you think of the idea which was proposed by both Scott and David where WordPress is shipped with two themes. A theme which showcases everything WordPress has to offer and a theme which is used as a framework for those looking to create their own theme? I like that idea very much and wouldn’t mind seeing something like that.

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  3. It’s so ironic that Scott put his sites up for sale.

    I’ve hacked at Sandbox for years since it was a decent GPL theme to start from. I never felt comfortable modifying heavily stylized themes for clients and sites I work on, so Sandbox was a fantastic and guiltless starting point.

    I started reworking my “personal fork” last month after noticing the need for upgrades to Sandbox for WordPress 2.7. I shopped other “theme frameworks” and mostly decided to mix some DNA for the GPL frameworks I’ve liked. The work of Scott and other “open” theme developers is greatly appreciated.

    Putting it in WordPress core is a strange issue. But I would love to see at least sandbox_body_class move to core like the comment_class and post_class that were introduced in WP 2.7.

    A framework in WP core might need some styling, and sandbox has none. It might also need a child theme, but that might be confusing. It’s an interesting proposition. I wish your poll had a couple more answers to choose from.

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  4. Darn it! Forgot the check box, and had to take caidy to work!

    A framework style theme in WP core would be cool. Sandbox with some nice default typography, or even with some light ideas from other frameworks. Probably wouldn’t go as far as Carrington or Thematic or even Theme Hybrid. And of course some light documentation to explain the purpose.

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  5. Yeah, I think that shipping WordPress with two new themes would be a great idea Jeffro.

    The default theme should definitely be something that looks good right out of the box so that newbies aren’t turned off from WordPress. It seems like something that could be skipped because it is just so easy to switch themes. But there are so many websites out there sporting the default theme at any given time that improving that theme can only make WordPress look better.

    And I’d love to see a basic framework included as a second theme. This would be useful for so many people, from novices just trying to figure out how it all goes together, to experienced designers that need a skeleton to use as a springboard for that next project.

    In fact, I think that they should include a framework, and use that framework in a new default theme. Then users who download WordPress can easily see how the framework can be refined into a full theme.

    This would also mean that both of the “official” themes are the same under the hood. which would make them much easier to provide support for since the answers would generally be the same.

    Someone in the podcast mentioned that maybe only Sandbox should be included, and then a child theme to make it look good by default. This is interesting since it would be easier for new users to create or modify a child theme rather than a complete theme.

    And it would also cut back on “bloat” since there would only be one theme shipped, which would make some users happy… But I think it would overly complicate things and lead to a lot of confusion for newbies as to what was a child and what was a theme unless the developers committed to making that the standard.

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