The comment threading introduced with WordPress 2.7 is now implemented into my theme, more or less. I still need to work out some kinks and find a layout I like, but the basic code is there.
First of all. When you release a totally new feature, isn’t it a good idea to write up the instructions on how it works beforehand? I know WordPress is open source and so on, and I also know smart people will get some instructions up in a matter of days. But to let people reverse engineer and experiment to even find out how this new feature works, let alone how it’s supposed to be used.. It just gets me a bit irritated.
Enough ranting. To get it working, I followed the instructions in the WordPress codex. They are quite good, a bit messy at times, but takes you through most of the steps needed. Since my theme is just for me, I didn’t do any of the stuff to keep it compatible for older versions. Also note that most of the code snippets in the guide are written with the assumption that you know when start and end tags are missing, and how to place them. It’s quite inconsistent.
Now comes the fun part. Styling. A lot of classes have changed names or moved around a little, and the comment threading creates a new array of classes for you to play with. But, and this is a strong point, any customizing you had done to the HTML code is now gone. Now, it is done in a code snippet added to functions.php, which is called in the new wp_list_comments() function. As I write this, the documentation on that function is less than optimal, and quite confusing. The example code given there for customizing the comment HTML works fine though, don’t hesitate to use it. Just remember to not add any spaces or line breaks outside <?php ?>!! This broke a lot of stuff for me. :P
I would never have managed to style it all, if it hadn’t been for Firebug and nice and patient friends. But now, it works.