We are sorry to hear that Gantry 5 hasn’t met your expectations.
We would like to let you know that Inheritance is one of our main priorities and the only reason it’s not implemented yet is because it requires proper discussion for a good implementation that can prove to be future proof as well as backward compatible.
Like you others have expressed the need of inheritance support, not just at a generic layout level but also deep within a section and particle.
Gantry has already support for inheritance in many other locations like Styles, Settings, File uploading, but because the layout is a delicate matter, we want to ensure to implement it right, rather than rushing it.
Keep in mind Gantry is a free open-source project where anyone can contribute. It is so much open you can see every activity about code from our GitHub Repository, you can submit a new issue or question through it, you can join our Chat, you can follow our Blog for news and updates, you can read our Documentation and you can constantly keep an eye on Agenda (Roadmap).
You will notice that in our Agenda, Inheritance is the first item, so yes, it has been discussed several times and we have made it clear through several different media streams that we know it’s a missing feature, what is the complexity and that we are working on implementing it. Other thousands users understood the challenges we are facing and are still feeling happy with what Gantry has to offer, so we are truly sorry to see that for you it’s not the case.
We are not entirely sure what you mean by “needing several css/js hotfixes”, Gantry is a Theme Framework, it has been for several years and its scope is to function as a middle man between Platform and Developer/Enduser.
The free default Hydrogen theme that we have built serves as a blank canvas for anyone who wants to build their site or new theme.
Some people might find Hydrogen, or any other Premium theme for that matters, has everything that is needed. This is often not the case, and that’s why a Theme Framework comes in handy, it allows you to customize, override, manipulate the theme in any preferred method. This requires some work on your end, of course, but this is the point of a Framework altogether.
Nucleus, Gantry’s Engine on which Hydrogen and any theme has been developed on, supports and has been tested with all modern devices and browsers, as stated in our Requirements page. If you are developing your own theme, thanks to the flexibility of Gantry you can create your own engine to support an even greater amount of devices and browsers.
The Gantry 5 Framework is the starting point, whether you want static HTML, dynamic & sandboxed content with particles, or use more powerful modules/widgets, Gantry 5 can accommodate them all, as its a theme framework, not a full CMS. We will be exploring how to make particles more powerful however, but you can use your existing modules/widgets easily, just assign them a position with the layout.
If you found any issue with Hydrogen and Browsers, we would like to know what kind of CSS and JS hacks you had to come up with, so that we can fix them. Please open an issue about it, it will benefit the whole Gantry community!
Lastly, we hope one day you will reconsider Gantry and give it another chance and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask!
Thank you.
