Re: Feature set... No major features are being cut. There are a few sacrifices in order to enhance performance - in particular, as pages are cached, many options that won't work well with the cache have to be eliminated. The largest three are user-selectable page sizes (posts/topics per page), sortable columns on postlist, and daysprune on postlist. (Admins will choose the page size globally, and the sort order on a forum-by-forum basis. Daysprune has been eliminated entirely.)
Re: XHTML + CSS - this is certainly a goal. While the layout is still table based, almost everything is styled using CSS and a plethora of new classes.
Re: The template system is much more complicated and therefore much more powerful in the new product. For normal users (meaning those that don't give their boards entire makeovers <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />), it will still be easy to use and manage. Power users (meaning you) will find all sorts of cool things are possible that weren't before.
The problem with things getting stuck in variables that are assembled before passed to the template no longer exists because the template is responsible entirely for all output, including HTML. (No display logic in the business logic.)
There will still be certain global HTML fragments, such as the table open/close, etc. The Instant UBBCode/Graemlins block is probably not going to be an external component, as there will be one and only one post/reply/edit template instead of separate ones for each function.
Re: Because of the caching, users can not choose HTML template sets. (Well, OK, they could, but we're not going to let them in the stock code. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />) They'll be able to choose CSS skins, however. Admins will be able to select alternate HTML template sets on a forum/area basis, as in Classic.
Re: More than a forum... I think you'll enjoy the new framework... <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Re: Inline Threads-style polls are being used.
Re: Stylesheets... as we haven't started on the style system, no less designed styles, I'll refrain from comment. (The development style is red, orange, and hot pink, among other colors. Dave loves it. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />)
