How P2 Changed Automattic — Matt Mullenweg.
Did you ever think a theme could change the way you experience life on a daily basis? Here is a story about how P2 – a “live update” theme for the WordPress publishing platform has done that for a whole group of people. This theme demonstrates how a specific feature set was offered through a theme (basically an application running on the WordPress platform). Possible uses for this type of theme: what would you dream up outside of an office or workgroup type setting? Interesting!
Today there was plenty of discussion regarding what kind of functionality should be expected from a plugin vs. the function of a specific theme. As the development of specialized themes such as P2 continue to emerge, it is interesting to see the lines blur between plugin and theme.
What are your thoughts? Here are some of the discussion points made in this conversation up to this point:
@michaeltorbert: Themes should be swappable without losing functionality.If they do too much it is a drawback not a plus RT @carlhancock
@wptavern: @carlhancock I think themes and plugins should work together in harmony. But that happens in a perfect world. We don’t live in that world
@carlhankock: @bradleypotter @wptavern major functionality shouldn’t be married to a theme which is the point of plugins.
Personally I believe there is a balance between finding stable functionality in popular or up and coming plugins, while a Theme developer may indeed be required to opt to build a Theme that offers exclusive functionality such as the P2 theme. Certainly there are pros and cons… but in the end the people who use the theme and plugins cast their vote; some items get integrated into core functionality, theme functions get spun off into standalone plugins while others develop frameworks with child themes. Interesting no?
Here’s the question: Should themes have plugin functionality built into them? Cast your vote over at WPTavern.
