I think calling it a new templating system is exaggerating, since it implies complexity. :) I take that back. It is actually a very simple solution.
We created a set of css-files and images and grouped them together as a theme. A new parameter in the kernel lets you enter the location of your desired theme. (Maybe we would want to make the master template a part of the theme.) An enhancement we have thought of already is that you might want to allow the user to be able to select their own theme, like you may select your language today.
Each package may use the existing css-templates or its own. What a package shouldn't do, is change colors and overall positions on the whole page.
Jonas will start a new thread to describe the really simple but somewhat tedious job of changing the look and feel of Open ACS.
Benefits of having themes are.
1. Ease of use. Just a simple parameter to change total look and feel.
2. Easy to change. The programmer/designer just updates the css-files and images (and master template).
3. In the future one might want to allow each user to pick their own favorite theme for the site. A theme might be large fonts for visually handicapped and so on...
