Waterlee for 1.9

[zeljkoprsa]

Hi guys,

We were talking about this in the office and came to the conclusion that Waterlee would be used only for Magento versions prior to 1.9.

Waterlee project started from a place of need before Magento released their "native" responsive theme.

Still, would like to hear how you see this and if there is a way to continue with waterlee development post 1.9?

[ppowalowski]

I think the core concept of waterlee on foundation - building the theme assets with gulp/nodesass and by speeding up development with (instant preview) browser-sync are (targeting advanced devs) a major benefit for rapid results which I don't want to miss.

The next step in Magento will be 2.0 (probably) in autumn this year. I don't think it'll really change the concept of frontend development which would keep waterlee aproach still valid even then.

[zeljkoprsa]

@ppowalowski Hope you're right. Let's keep Waterlee as an alternative and make the best of it.

[azeemism]

RWD does not utilizes a fully responsive grid system like waterlee, and with other development focuses I doubt this will change moving ahead to 2.0.

Utilizing custom styles written to cater to Magento's markup patterns, noted by Erik Hansen, seems as far as Magento wants to go. He even mentions that introducing a frontend framework would have required conforming to the patterns of that framework, which would have involved massive refactoring of the template files. ( http://magento.stackexchange.com/questions/21056/magento-ce-1-9-responsive-theme-whats-its-base/21079#21079 )

Also, I figure it is safe to bet that Waterlee would increase Magento SEO a smidge more than RWD, because it uses a true responsive grid. :) Google can tell...