Wordpress theme deleting pieces of PHP causes blank screen - php

Question

I am trying to modify a child theme based on wp-foundation and I'm trying to edit the front page.
This is the front page code in the main theme;
<?php
/*
Template Name: Homepage
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?>
<div id="content">
<div id="main" class="twelve columns" role="main">
<article role="article">
<?php
$orbit_slider = of_get_option('orbit_slider');
if ($orbit_slider){
?>
<header>
<div id="featured">
</div>
</header>
<?php } ?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<section class="row post_content">
<div class="home-main eight columns">
<?php the_content(); ?>
</div>
</section> <!-- end article header -->
<footer>
<p class="clearfix"><?php the_tags('<span class="tags">Tags: ', ', ', '</span>'); ?></p>
</footer> <!-- end article footer -->
</article> <!-- end article -->
<?php
// No comments on homepage
//comments_template();
?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</article>
<?php endif; ?>
</div> <!-- end #main -->
</div> <!-- end #content -->
<?php get_footer(); ?>
Whenever I try to delete some code (I want to get rid of the built in orbit slider and use a plugin for example) but when I delete this piece;
<?php
$orbit_slider = of_get_option('orbit_slider');
if ($orbit_slider){
?>
The page just goes blank. I thought I was doing this in a 'clean' way, though I am not so familiar with PHP so I don't get why the page goes blank. I want to delete more of the php codes (basically I want a clean empty page to start with.) but they all give the same result; a blank page.
Why can't I just remove these pieces, why does this error occur?

Answer 1

May be you have removed if ($orbit_slider){, but you have left the closing curly brace <?php } ?>
Remove that line just after the header closing tag.
</header>
remove this ----> <?php } ?>

Answer 2

in your wp-config.php look for
define('WP_DEBUG', false);
and replace it with
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
which will show errors instead of blank screen (only for development)
for this piece of code you are getting error because
if ($orbit_slider){
starts an if loop. try removing only
$orbit_slider = of_get_option('orbit_slider');