Archive for the ‘Darwin’ Category

Darwin WordPress Theme 0.1.3

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Not long has passed since the last release, I know, however there were a number of little tweaks that needed to be disseminated to the public before too many people downloaded the old one.

The good old chaps down at WordPress Themes rejected my update at first, saying that there was a problem with the theme, that the sidebar disappeared on single page view. I replied, assuring them that this was a feature, not a bug 🙂 (same functionality as the default WordPress theme, interestingly enough)

But anyway, the latest Darwin Theme is available now to download directly from WordPress Extend. Vote high stars for it if you like it.

Newly developed features:

  1. Changes in colours of links and text
  2. Font and typography changes
  3. Corrected theme URI in the stylesheet
  4. Merged updates to WordPress default Kubrick theme with Darwin code
  5. Footer changes in wording and style
  6. Added query count and page load timer to footer

I’m currently trying to work out how to upload the source to Google Code so that others can come in on the development. This will happen in due time.

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Darwin Theme Evolution 0.1.2 Alpha

Monday, July 28th, 2008

It has been a while between drinks, but here is the next revision of the Darwin Theme for WordPress. The evolution continues. The WordPress website has opened up its new themes section, so the new version should be available there once it is approved.

For those who can’t wait that long, here it is for download here:

Darwin Theme 0.1.2 download

To install, simply unzip the file and upload the folder to your WordPress themes directory. For a preview of the theme, just browse around this site 🙂 (note: you may notice some differences being worked on for the next version).

Favourable mutation log:

  1. Made the title lighter and closer to the top.
  2. Took away the grey footer that was breaking the page sometimes. Replaced it with a groovy dotted line and changed the text colours around a bit.
  3. Changed header 3 size in archive and category page to match the normal posts because it looked strange.
  4. Changed the browser title bar display to show the page name first and then the blog name on single posts and archive pages.
  5. Changed attribution in the footer to link to the Darwin theme category.
  6. Made the <body> background colour white as it showed up during loading sometimes.
  7. Moved the <?php wp_footer(); ?> inside the footer div so that the little smiley face they use with wp-stats wouldn’t break the page layout.
  8. Cleaned up css a little from the mess that was the Kubrick css.

Enjoy! Subversion repository should be coming soon so that you can add your own code to the theme and stay up to date with nightly builds.

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First Update for Darwin Theme

Friday, March 28th, 2008

After a few days use and rigorous testing down in the lab and out in the wild blue yonder of the interwebs, this new species of WordPress theme we call “Darwin” has undergone the first tiny changes in its evolutionary and ever-marching journey towards a more perfect suitability to its environment.

A number of small alterations in genetic php code seem enough to warrant a revision release. These include:

  1. Colours and wording in the footer
  2. Footer css styling issues in ie7
  3. Altered styles for code and blockquotes
  4. Wide borders for images in posts, making 500 pixel images line up perfectly with text
  5. Comment box now lines up correctly
  6. Header moves in to meet text while viewing single page, and h2 text now aligns left
  7. “Archive” text removed from single pages in the browser title bar
  8. Reduced height on list elements
  9. Other seemingly imperceivable changes

This post also serves as an excuse to use the Abduction! Firefox plugin, which allows full page exports straight from your browser.

View Screenshot | Download version 0.1.1 | Or Test Run Right Here 🙂

Install as per usual, as per the last Darwin post. And as before, feel free to use and modify at will, with or without credit under the GPL. Shout back any favourable modifications you may stumble upon.

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Introducing Darwin

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I was searching for a very minimalistic theme, with a certain understated simple elegance, a theme that met with web standards, had widget support, and was easily customisable. Growing tiresome of wading through the sea of WordPress themes, looking for one that I could be truly happy with using, I decided it was high time I developed a theme of my own.

So here it is, entitled “Darwin” after the grandfather of evolution theory, good old Charlie. Still in very early alpha stages, the Darwin theme is based very heavily on the default Kubrick theme that comes with WordPress. I originally tried to develop the theme from scratch, without much luck, and also began to develop it as a K2 style, but found that I was stifled by the limited flexibility.

Features List

  1. Very minimalist design, fast loading
  2. Support for WordPress Widgets
  3. Web standards compliant, valid XHTML and CSS
  4. Wider content pane, suitable for displaying flickr 500px photos
  5. Free to use and modify, no sponsored links
  6. Lots of other cool stuff

Screenshot | Download version 0.1 alpha, released under GPL

Installation Instructions

  1. Unzip the folder and upload to your wp-content/themes/ directory
  2. Go to the themes viewer in your WordPress admin and click on the one that says “Darwin”
  3. Enjoy!

I’m releasing Darwin into the wild using the General Public Licence to encourage others to use and work on evolving the theme over time. The GPL basically states that you can use the code, change and modify it — you don’t even have to link back to me if you don’t want to, although it would be appreciated — as long as you keep all derived versions or modifications under the same licence.

Through various tiny mutations, Darwin will adapt over time. Please let me know any genetic code changes you might make, so I can include them in the next release. I’m phocks at gmail.

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