2.4 Release

December 11, 2008 by Ben Eastaugh | 32 comments

Tarski 2.4 adds support for new WordPress 2.7 features including threaded comments and the redesigned admin panel. Details are available in the changelog. Please note that WordPress 2.7 is required for this release.

Download Tarski 2.4

You can also get this release as a Git tag or a Subversion tag or branch.

We strongly recommend following the upgrade guide. Always back up your files and database before running a WordPress or Tarski upgrade. Please ensure that you upgrade WordPress before installing the new version of Tarski.

Tarski 2.3 was an extremely stable release, so while there are a lot of changes in 2.4, they’re almost all in support of new features. A lot of behind-the-scenes work to make Tarski’s code cleaner, more robust and compatible with WordPress 2.7 has taken place, but the interesting parts for most users will be the two major functionality changes to comments and the options page.

Tarski now supports the new threaded comments functionality added in WordPress 2.7. Threading and paging are both built into the WP core, and are pretty configurable from the admin panel. One can decide whether comments should be paginated, and if so, how many top-level comments should appear on each page (if threading is disabled, all comments will be top-level ones). The maximum level of nesting can be set from 1 to 10, and comment threads can be set to automatically close after a certain period of time.

The changes made to accommodate this new functionality mean that Tarski’s comments are now ‘inline’ with the main content area, and are no longer forced down by the sidebar. This decision was difficult to make; Tarski’s distinctive comments were, to my mind, one of the more elegant features of the theme and the limitations they imposed were minor compared to the benefits of better spacing and a decent content area for comments to fit into. However, given Tarski’s ability to swap columns around and the need to support RTL languages, the development and ongoing support burden would have been too much, given the vast amounts of added complexity that the new comments system brings.

Obviously the biggest user-facing change in WordPress 2.7 is the new, completely redesigned admin panel. When it became clear just how radical the changes were, I decided that despite the Tarski options page being thoroughly overhauled not too long ago in version 2.1, I had to revisit both the aesthetics and the functionality. The result is, I think, a cleaner and more effective options page which doesn’t feel out of place in the new admin area.

There have also been some changes to the way options are saved to the database: Tarski now uses the WordPress generic admin POST handler, which both leads to more modular code and bakes in a certain amount of additional security protection. Furthermore, building on the security improvements in version 2.3, the options handlers now check the referrer to protect against CSRF attacks—a type of attack that Tarski’s login and logout links are also now hardened against, thanks to Mark Jaquith’s thoughtfulness.

Tarski’s update notifier now uses the new HTTP API, which has several advantages over Tarski’s native update notifier code. To begin with, it will work across a far wider range of transports, potentially making update notifications available to many more people whose servers don’t support libcurl or fsockopen. Just as importantly, it will be supported by the core WordPress team, reducing the amount of complex and highly specialised code in Tarski. This leaves me more time to focus on Tarski’s core competencies and reduces the opportunities for bugs in the update notifier (something that has been an ongoing issue ever since it was introduced).

Thanks to those who tested the release candidates; I hope everyone enjoys using the new version.

Please post any bugs or suggestions on the forum.

Tags: 2.4, HTTP API, options page, threaded comments, update notifier, WordPress 2.7

32 comments

Lee on December 11, 2008 at 12:42 pm

I wanted to see how Tarski’s new inline comments looked. :-)

Also, does this release have the ability to disable the admin link in the navbar for people who are logged in, or (even better) customise it? This is something I’d really like to see!

Totally awesome theme BTW – an essential indgredient of our site IMHO.
1. Lee on December 11, 2008 at 12:45 pm
  
  Hmmm, I really don’t like the look of the new inline comments actually – I think this spoils one of Tarski’s key advantages.
  1. Ben Eastaugh on December 11, 2008 at 1:02 pm
    
    I imagine I’ll continue to change and polish the comments code over the next couple of releases, so the way it looks now isn’t the final word on things. That being said, there would have to be some fairly major change in circumstances for me to revert to the way things were.
    
    Right now there would simply be too many combinations for me to test; using this inline configuration halves that number. Dropping the ability to swap columns or RTL language support should have a similar effect in this regard (I imagine, considering those alternatives, you can see why I made the choice I did).
    
    Suggestions as to how I could work around the issues I’ve mentioned here and in the post would be welcome. I do agree the new comments aren’t quite as beautiful as the old ones, but they’re more functional and more maintainable.
    1. Lee on December 11, 2008 at 1:24 pm
      
      Personally I would vote to drop swapping the columns – Tarski really seems to be made for a left sidebar layout. Is anybody using it with swapped columns?
      
      As for RTL languages – pardon my ignorance, but I have no idea what that means!
      1. Ben Eastaugh on December 11, 2008 at 1:34 pm
        
        You’d be surprised how many people use the swapped columns. I think it’s because it’s a more common blog layout, so people are comfortable with it. When I first designed Tarski as a theme for my site, the sidebar was on the left, and obviously that’s still the default—as far as I’m concerned it’s much better that way, but when I added the column swapping it was one of the most requested features, and whenever anything breaks in that layout configuration I get a horde of people complaining.
        
        RTL languages are just those in which the text flows from right to left, rather than left to right, such as Hebrew or Arabic.
      2. vpetkov on December 29, 2008 at 10:23 am
        
        Yes! I am using Tarski with swapped columns.
      3. SwasBoss on December 30, 2008 at 5:47 pm
        
        I am just trying this inline comment … yay!
        
        But I just wanted to say that I am also a user of the swapped columns. Please don’t take this away =)
      4. Sanjay M on January 20, 2009 at 6:33 am
        
        I tried swapping the columns, but then the space was just too little between the content and the column, so switched it back. Then I realised its better readability if nothing comes to the right of the content so was quite happy with the original layout.
        
        After over a couple of years with the beautiful OrangeSky theme by Nao, I had to move on and tried quite a few so far. But among those that I tried, this one was by far the best one that I could find – its so perfect for everything I wanted to do – thank you very much!
2. Ben Eastaugh on December 11, 2008 at 12:54 pm
  
  The admin link can be customised pretty easily with a plugin; start a thread on the forum and I’ll post some example code.
  1. Lee on December 11, 2008 at 1:32 pm
    
    Just did – thanks for the quick response!
    
    I must say 2.7’s threaded comments seem to work very well.
Lee on December 11, 2008 at 1:51 pm

Will 2.3 work with WP 2.7 if you don’t enable the new comment features (e.g. threading)?
1. Ben Eastaugh on December 11, 2008 at 2:41 pm
  
  It should do, yes. The options page will look pretty terrible, though.
Ander on December 12, 2008 at 11:55 pm

Hi, I am relatively new to Wordpress (not to blogging though; I moved a 5-years blog from http://www.iobloggo.com to my domain using WP) and I decided to use Tarski as a theme, as I think it is very elegant in its simplicity.
I use the thoughtwind header, customized to move the head a little more to the side… I think the page is more balanced this way. Anyway, the site is still undergoing work.
I wanted to congratulate you on an excellent (and fast, right after 2.7) release, and I hope to continue using your theme for a long time.
Regards from Italy,
Ander
1. Juliano Ajamil on December 18, 2008 at 6:15 pm
  
  Time to update my translation.
  
  Ben, the pot file generated here is from 2.4 already?
  Hmm, yes, it is. I found some lines there that are not currently translated in my blog.
  
  I will post the updated translation files in the forums asap, Ben.
  
  Once again, thank you for your efforts with Tarski.
  
  Regards,
  Juliano.
  1. Ben Eastaugh on December 19, 2008 at 12:14 am
    
    Yes, I updated the POT file today, so it should be ready to use.
satria.permana on December 20, 2008 at 7:40 am

thanks for the themes.. great!!!
Pingback from Deutsch für Tarski 2.4 · sauerlandthemen on December 23, 2008 at 9:14 am
SwasBoss on December 30, 2008 at 5:41 pm

Ben, I have never stopped by to thank you for such a minimalistic theme of goodness and thought I would give it the business today. I have used your theme for a few years now. Although, I did make the switch to Brian Gardner’s News theme for about a year. But, I came back to Tarski! This time a little more brave to start experimenting with the style files.

Keep up the fantastic work that you do! Especially, how dedicated your are to the forums. Brilliant!
Livio on January 6, 2009 at 6:04 am

Tarski is right now more advanced in features than K2. At least it seems so to me. I like it a lot. Great layout + CSS possibilities = perfection :) .
Sisuke on January 25, 2009 at 6:31 am

This is the theme that I’ve searching for for months,
I don’t want anything more,
Simple but powerfull,
Thank you – Thank You – Thank You
Sisuke on January 25, 2009 at 6:42 am

I think I have to comment twice,
Because I used these theme in both of my blog,
I spent much time and money to find you,
Thank you once more
anontanan on February 9, 2009 at 10:22 pm

Thank You.:)Thank You.:)Thank You.:)Thank You.:)Thank You.:)
Sanjay M on February 10, 2009 at 6:19 am

Please have a look at my customised tarski theme hope you like it! I love it – its so perfect for my exact specific requirement – thanks a lot!
yunshui on February 23, 2009 at 4:19 pm

Thanks for fixing the comments – so much better now one doesn’t have to scroll through infinite white space to find them!
1. Ben Eastaugh on February 23, 2009 at 4:40 pm
  
  Obviously I don’t think they were broken in the first place, but I appreciate that many people are very strongly attached to their ludicrously long sidebars and thus disagree, so I’m glad the change has at least ameliorated that issue.
labs on February 28, 2009 at 6:53 pm

Its been a really long long time ……waiting for the next version…when can we expect it
1. Ben Eastaugh on February 28, 2009 at 7:29 pm
  
  Probably within the next couple of weeks. The release is intended to coincide with that of the next WordPress version.
  
  Actually, the WP core team seem to have bumped the release date, so the beginning of April is probably more likely.
  
  You can track the progress of the new version of Tarski by checking the changelog every so often.
Pingback from BTW · Tarski 2.4 on March 4, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Holroyd Hammond on March 5, 2009 at 4:03 pm

Just want to say that your theme is the all-around best – period. I try others from time to time but always come back to Tarski. Thanks and keep up the good work.
1. Ben Eastaugh on March 5, 2009 at 4:44 pm
  
  Thanks Holroyd, that’s very kind.
labs on March 10, 2009 at 2:29 pm

I find you have made alot of changes in tarski v2.5. Do we really have to wait till the next release of WP 2.8 ….hope you could also add a little bit of colour to brighten the theme (maybe a colorful sidebar)…anyway i use this nice theme
Pingback from axel-ratzer.de · Umstellung Blogdesign on March 15, 2009 at 7:03 pm