Proposed compatibility-breaking transition period for LS architecture changes, starting in May

I started to write an article the other day, about my LiteStep module
Screenbar and what it means for themers and for other modules. After a few
sections, it fell into a pattern: explain how something doesn't work properly
in LiteStep (no matter what themers do to cover up the problem), and how my
module will solve it, but will require things to work differently. To solve
the problem of fragile layouts based on manually writing formulas to compute
coordinates, themers can use Screenbar's widget hierarchy, which is more
robust. To solve the autohide, multimonitor and Z-order problems, themers
should make all the little widget modules children of Screenbar, which handles
all these things. Unfortunately, child modules don't work all that well;
modules have to change how they handle the parent paremeter to initModuleEx,
and to have multiple instances (ie, to have a copy appear on each monitor),
some new entry points are required. In other words, everything would work
better, but work in a completely different and non-backwards-compatible way.
There are similar problems with the desktop maximize area and with the start
menu. Screenbar comes with its own, wholly new concept of how virtual desktops
ought to work, which is completely incompatible with RabidVWM and the four-pane
interface that people are used to. On top of all that, the way Screenbar uses
RC files makes you really want to change the syntax. For a module, it's a tough
sell.

LiteStep's problems, however, are much bigger than one module. Some
problems are common bugs that must be fixed in every module of a particular
type. Fixing these problems requires getting rid of all the unmaintained and
abandoned modules. Some are missing functionality which has been added at the
wrong level - modules implementing features that belong in the core, and themes
implementing features that belong in modules. Fixing these problems requires
changing the interface, reimplementing the feature properly, and getting rid of
the broken implementation.