The problem with creating a WordPress theme isn't that it's missing buzzwordy tech like HAML, SASS and CoffeeScript. The problem is that the PHP behind WordPress is hideous. Even in version 3.x
If someone were to fork WordPress and fix all the spaghetti code, then I could stop writing themes like it was 1998...
And if you are going to break the plugin ecosystem, might as well use Habari, which is much nicer: http://habariproject.org/en/
Too bad all the available plugins fit in a single page: http://wiki.habariproject.org/en/Available_Plugins
I'm thinking of a theme framework that ease the theme creation process. It keeps you focused on doing what matters: putting the theme, CSS, HTML and JavaScript. Mainly there are three things to care about
- A routing engine. Similar to the Ruby routing engine. A plain and simple one.
- Views with a templating engine; and avoid the PHP/HTML mixing non-sense.
- A simple solution to create Admin panels on the fly.
I think this could serve as a solution for Theme Authors which helps them focus on the design rather than fight PHP loops and lookup WordPress functions.