Hi Richard, First of all, thanks a lot for you input.
In response to your question about why Bootstrap, I just suggested it because that's the one I already used in a couple of OFBiz projects. Actually the designer who introduced Bootstrap for one of those projects also suggested Zurb, but since I already had a bit of Bootstrap knowledge I decided to use it as well for the other project. Well, that doesn't change the fact that you are right. There is no reason to do it with Bootstrap exclusively so I think we could rename this thread to just 'Converting frontend themes to a HTML5 framework' until we decide which framework (if any) we should use. As a side note, I must say that I am not a web designer. >From my understanding your idea is to let users to compile a customized framework based on Bootstrap, HTML5Boilerplate or Zurb within OFBiz, correct? If so, my initial idea was a bit different, I just wanted to use a customized version of Bootstrap compiled directly from their site: http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/customize.html On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 3:49 PM, Richard Siddall <richard.sidd...@elirion.net > wrote: > Jonatan Soto wrote: > >> Would be anyone interested in convert the existing frontend themes into >> Bootstrap >> http://twitter.github.io/**bootstrap/<http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/> >> ? >> >> The idea is to create a theme from scratch that will replace the current >> default and multiplex themes. >> > [snip] > > While I think having more modern front-end themes would be great, let me > play devil's advocate... > > Why Bootstrap? > > Why not Zurb Foundation (http://foundation.zurb.com/), HTML5 Boilerplate ( > http://html5boilerplate.com/) or some other starting point? Or as Scott > Kellum argued on the Compass list (on January 8), use a combination of > components such as Susy, Sassy-buttons, Color-Schemer, and Modular-Scale. > > Bootstrap is an easy way of getting a lot of functionality, but it's > arguable overused. It's fast becoming to HTML5 frameworks what Times Roman > is to web fonts. If you want your web shop to look like everyone else's > web shop, it's a great choice. If you want to differentiate yourself in > the market, use something else. > > Plus, many Bootstrap-based themes just throw the whole bloated framework > at the browser, regardless of which pieces they use, slowing page loads and > wasting mobile bandwidth allocations. But Bootstrap is built on LESS, so > you can choose which chunks of CSS and JavaScript should be included in > your site's copy of Bootstrap, as well as using variables and mixins to get > more consistent CSS styling. > > LESS is based on JavaScript, which practically requires you to install > Node.js to use it. Zurb Foundation is based on SASS, which is written in > Ruby. It looks like SASS will run on JRuby on the JVM. > > To summarize: > - Bootstrap is just one of several great HTML5 frameworks > - You can get the same effects using straight CSS3 and JavaScript, or > smaller projects for areas like responsive design, button styling, text > spacing, etc. > - Bootstrap is overused > - Bootstrap is frequently ineptly used, penalizing the end user > - A major reason to use Bootstrap is to use LESS and other languages that > abstract CSS and JavaScript > - Bootstrap may not be the best framework for a Java-based project > > I hope this helps. > > Regards, > > Richard Siddall > -- ----- Jonatan Soto
