Let the games begin
Yesterday I posted an announcement on the Weblog Tools Collection about a competition for creating style sheets for the Sandbox theme.
This was just a few days after the release of Sandbox v0.9, but I think you’ll be surprised to see how much thought and work has gone into making this the best possible competition. Which leads me to introduce to you . . .
The Sandbox Designs Competition: http://www.sndbx.org/
So Digg This, bookmark it on Del.icio.us or Ma.gnolia, do whatever you need to do. It’s going to be a great competition. The WordPress community has produced some amazing work. I have every confidence that we’ll be seeing more of that.
Anyhow, all the competition details (and more) are available on sndbx.org and I encourage everyone to get started: sketch, mockup, wireframe, whatever you do. Two months is enough time to produce at least one great design.
You can do it for the glory, you can do it for the cash, or you can do it just to see if you win or not. But remember: this is a design competition. We have a leveled playing field. We have so many CSS tools and techniques available. Etc. Etc.
Even though the Sandbox comes with some style sheets (Kubrick, Spartan) as examples, I thought I’d provide one with at least some core classes so that novices might have an idea of where to begin; however, I emphatically point out that, unlike most themes, the Sandbox produces a great number of classes within the markup dynamically.
Which means that the index page is going to have some different classes than a single post page. A “page” is going have a few different classes than a category archive, search results different from a 404. And so on.
But just to get a taste, here you go. This is a descriptor-rich, selector-empty CSS file that you can use as a reference for getting started with the Sandbox.
Example Sandbox CSS: example-sandbox-selectors.css
It is important to point out that the dynamic classes are excluded in the file above. To reference those, please see the Sandbox readme.html.
Therefore, this example CSS file is, relatively, purposely incomplete. You may just need to see the Sandbox source in action to understand why. 
adam wrote:
your digg and del.icio.us links aren’t quite working. here’s the digg link for the wltc announcement.
Posted 01 Jun 2007 at 7:16 pm ¶
Scott wrote:
Thanks, Adam. Fixed the links.
By the way, what do you make of that example CSS file? I hope it’s not confusing. But if it is, I’m sure I’ll hear about it.
Posted 01 Jun 2007 at 7:31 pm ¶
adam wrote:
i have difficulty writing CSS files that are less than a thousand lines. i’m the wrong person to ask about things being too confusing
Posted 01 Jun 2007 at 11:53 pm ¶
Stephen Collins wrote:
As I had to hack header.php to get my menu to show the elements I wanted, in the order I wanted them (not all are top-level, and I didn’t want sub-menus), I guess I’ll have to count myself out - unless someone can show me how to do it.
Nonetheless, I’m pretty pleased with what Sandbox has been able to do for me at http://www.acidlabs.org/.
The ability to mess with dynamic selectors has been the killer function.
Awesome.
Posted 24 Jun 2007 at 11:53 pm ¶
Scott wrote:
Ah, Stephen. Don’t count yourself out.
Consider
#menu ul ul{display:none;}.Just because it’s there, doesn’t mean you have to design it.
Posted 24 Jun 2007 at 11:59 pm ¶
Stephen Collins wrote:
@Scott - sneaky! Still, I’m not certain how I’d do the menu content as displayed given it’s a combination of top and submenu items displayed as a single menu.
Posted 25 Jun 2007 at 7:57 am ¶
Scott wrote:
Therein lies the challenge. (Be sneaky.)
You might consider adapting your approach for the purposes of the comp. You could even create some efficient dynamic menu behavior by coupling menu selectors with
bodyclasses, ie,div#menu ul ul{display:none;} body.page div#menu ul ul{display:block;}And more!
Posted 25 Jun 2007 at 9:12 am ¶
Igor The Troll wrote:
Scot, I am Igor from Charlie’s in Bangkok we got all you PCV guys out of Nepal a few years back.
I found you because you del our company domain, so came to say high being you are a developer like me..
Check out my project PHSDL and see if you can do thumbs up for it…I will be going live with it in a day or so…moving it all from the incubator to authoritative domain…
Anyway, if you want to get in touch with me do a PM in my forum or email me.
Igor The Troll
Posted 30 Jul 2007 at 10:28 am ¶
Igor The Troll wrote:
Scot, thanks for the email. PHSDL is now live
http://www.phsdl.net
I am of to China in a Week or so, will be traveling for 2 or 3 months.
If you in Thailand, let me know and we can chat a bit over a Shingha.
Igor
Posted 30 Jul 2007 at 9:43 pm ¶