My thinking for "the next version" of OpenACS 4.x (i.e. not this release cycle) is that the context bar, along with the header and some other standard doc pieces, should be *properties* handled by the master template rather than by individual packages.
The packages would build their breadcrumbs but display format would be built by the master template.
In this way it would be easy to (say) supress the bold headers put out by packages by just ignoring them in the master template. Currently 4.x packages are as annoying in this regard as 3.x packages. We see clients asking for "tab-style" navigation and then at times want to get rid of the bold headers saying (for instance) "file storage" (because you have a tab that makes this obvious), and you have to edit a bazillion files to do this.
My comment is orthoganal to Lee's, i.e. having the context bar be separately templatable might be nice even if its put out by the master template.
But the motivation's similar, I think - we need to make changing the site-wide look-and-feel of standard page elements easier than it is now.
Lee ... I'm somewhat loath to accept new feature stuff in our current release cycle, in the interest of getting the thing out the door (as soon as the name discussion closes and we modify docs to reflect it I should be able to roll a beta and a couple of weeks later a "real" release).
So maybe we can hold off on this until we start our next development cycle?
