Half baked plans

Posted
23 June 2024

I’m putting together plans to build a new NetNewsWire theme from scratch. The idea is to build the theme incrementally. Publishing a blog post documenting the process of each subsequent version of the theme.

The other day I mentioned on Mastodon my returning interest in making a new NetNewsWire theme. Brent encouraged the idea.

I love the thought of contributing a theme that would be distributed with NetNewsWire! At the same time I don’t feel remotely ready to make and finish one. A theme published with the app needs a similar level of battle ‘testedness’ to the app itself.

Hence the idea of a half baked theme I can build up over time. Perhaps at some point it will be worthy of publishing with the app, in the mean time it can be explicitly alpha.

Documentation for making a theme is hard to find. These posts could also illustrate how to get started in making or modifying your own theme. It’s not complicated!

NetNewsWire theme from scratch

  1. Publish an absolutely barest of bones NetNewsWire theme to GitHub
  2. Blog, explaining the how and why of the theme.
  3. Permalink the theme in the post intro so folks can read the post in NetNewsWire – using the theme.
  4. Pick an aspect of the theme to improve and repeat.

If I get my shit together this might warrant a dedicated feed. In the meanwhile here will do.

Since blogging counts as constructive procrastination I’ve made a start.