Forums / Cotonti / Development / Poll: Default theme requirements

@Stam; I had one too and still have it :) still running.

@lukgoh; yes same!

even as a designer you may not always make a layout from scratch. so you need a robust structure that you can use instead of redoing all tpls.
iam a hughe fan of less html markup and more css. what i meant is having a default skin like artic,
this skin should contain the most common used tags and its functionality (maybe even IF/ELSE statements to make it eyecandy).
But still, this theme should follow all valid W3C code and should use a logical layout like the 960grid (maybe something similiar but wit less css)

When looking at sed/cot sites i often saw roughly edited default skins. and most of the time only header/footer parts where changed. the rest stayed the same.
So if the HTML markup is nice the rest should fit in nicley with less or no modification since you change the basic parts still in header and footer.

if the css file has a good structrue and logical reference you should change colors and basic stuff only once. all other elements should inherite the layout from these basic settings. if you follow that you would end up with a very clear and easy to read css structure that can be a good start.

i also would recommend using a css-reset "hack?" to reset all elements. i, for example, put even the stylesheets for the administration in another css file and load it seperatly to save a little bit of KB and make it more readable for everyone.

this is more aimed to teach people how to work with the skins
but also gives a fresh and clean start (without forgetting the cool stuff) for an experienced designer/new project.
(I hated the bCap cCap a lot with the old skin. ok it was nice for tables but a pain in the ass at the same time)

if this example skin is overloaded with librarys like bootstrap it becomes maybe more appealing to the eye
but looses a lot of its modablility because you are forced to use the libaray, if you dont want to redo all css (it's fucking nice though).

So in the end we should come up with a bare example and a rough and solid html structure that can be made to anything with css only this can be used then as a fresh start or as a learning sample for newcomers.
(much alike the css zen garden)

another Topic should be a nice Release Skin for the dl package.

Added 1 minute later:

lol, or it can be used for mobile browsers too if you forget the css file :D