xScape Progress Report

I am proud to announce that xScape Theme Framework is reached the beta stage and very long list of features is now frozen. Framework is 90% ready for use, and during integration stage with first two themes, all potential problems will be fixed and everything polished for the launch.

Now we are focusing on the themes, but I can’t give you exact release dates yet because we don’t want to rush with the development. Our intention is to deliver the stable and usable product from the very start. First theme called baseScape will be ready by the end of the week, and will premiere on the GD Star Rating website that will switch from the current theme to baseScape. During the transition I will make many benchmark tests to measure xScape speed and resource usage compared to the current theme on that website.

Also, there are few more things that are in the works for the launch. A website will be created running on WordPress MU that will allow you to register for a free blog and test drive themes. And in the future, each new theme will be added to that test website. This way you can try everything themes and framework have to offer and decide if you want to pay for them. And very important thing will be video tutorials to showcase all the features, to offer help and explanation for using the themes, documentation and everything else end users might need. Unfortunately, all that can’t be done overnight, so be patient, I promise that xScape and themes built on it will be great.

Also, we are compiling the list of features other currently available frameworks have and we will compare all of them including the xScape. I will announce final list of compared framworks next week, and the list will include both free and commercial frameworks: Thematic, Buffet Framework, StudioPress Genesis, WooThemes WooFramework, Carrington, K2 and Hybrid.