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The dire state of WordPress

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Re: The dire state of WordPress

#41

Post by pknight »

vineet wrote: post #21

Fixing WordPress's code problems don't really need to break plugin compatibility. They can rewrite the core, have new features requiring doing things the new way, and have small adapters to maintain the backward compatibility. But yes, this refactoring is going to cost and there is unfortunately not many people for whom it is a worthwhile expense. If Automattic is able to think about 10 years in the future, it might…

It's a very tough act to balance, because too many changes will prompt criticism that all kinds of things are breaking on a new update. You can't please both ways, so things move pretty gradually.

Having said that each new version has improvements. The direction I think is more dictated towards where the web is going. Each new release increases the amount of javascript, even backbone has made its way into core. There will also soon be better support for other DBs.

Re: The dire state of WordPress

#42

Post by Jgrubb »

riccardoforina wrote: post #19
bzudo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to have an open-source, Python based, CMS. Even better, one I could install on a GoDaddy domain, as easy as I can install Wordpress. To me, that is the biggest reason Wordpress is the best, except for all others.

Have a look at django-cms.org The "automagical installation" is something that can be done, but it's up to the provider to do it. A Python website (as well as for Ruby) ain't a bunch of files served by Apache, but something more... smart.

Call me crazy, but being able to drop files into a docroot of an apache install and have them Just Work seems like a much smarter market strategy for uptake of your product than what can currently be done with either Python or Ruby.

Then again maybe you had a different idea of "smart".

Re: The dire state of WordPress

#43

Post by chrishenn »

jsdalton wrote: post #7

To paraphrase Churchill, Wordpress is the worst CMS -- except for all the others. I'd love to find an open-source CMS (preferably in Python or Ruby) with clean, secure, elegant code and a well-organized framework that comes with a friendly admin and active, responsive development community like Wordpress, but so far I've got nothing. (If anyone has any suggestions, please do feel free to share them!)

I built a site using ProcessWire[1] a while back, it was a joy to use. Really clean modern php cms.

[1] http://processwire.com/

Re: The dire state of WordPress

#44

Post by taopao »

WimLeers wrote: post #25

WordPress needs more rules I'm convinced Wordpress is successful despite this. No rules implies very low barrier to entry .

Umm, whatever, no rules implies _no safe assumptions can be made_. Getting WP plugins to play nicely with each other can be like sorting out INIT conflicts in the Mac OS 6 days.

Re: The dire state of WordPress

#46

Post by FilterJoe »

jsdalton wrote: post #7

To paraphrase Churchill, Wordpress is the worst CMS -- except for all the others. I'd love to find an open-source CMS (preferably in Python or Ruby) with clean, secure, elegant code and a well-organized framework that comes with a friendly admin and active, responsive development community like Wordpress, but so far I've got nothing. (If anyone has any suggestions, please do feel free to share them!)

Mezzanine is quite nice: http://mezzanine.jupo.org/

It's Python (a Django app). BSD license. It has many advantages over Wordpress that I won't get into here, but all this is offset by one massive disadvantage: It rests on the Django framework.

Django is a nice framework for web development but it takes at least a few months to learn for someone starting from scratch. The installation process for Mezzanine requires some Django knowledge.

Installing Wordpress on the other hand requires zero PHP knowledge. A reasonably intelligent person can teach themselves Wordpress basics in days (the basics of self-hosted Wordpress, selecting a theme, selecting key plug-ins, etc.). No PHP required.

With Wordpress, it's not too difficult to select a provider (i.e. Bluehost) and have Wordpress automatically installed within minutes using Simple Script. If Mezzanine could be automatically installed like this, I think it would quickly become a popular and much more maintainable alternative.

Re: The dire state of WordPress

#47

Post by neya »

(Again) I agree with this article 100%. Wordpress is so messed up right now. It's codebase is clunky and it has a lot of redundant code (variables especially) out there.

I want you to:

Install Wordpress version 'X', develop themes and plugins for it and do an update after say, 6 months or after a year or so and tell me it doesn't break anything or show weird behavior. (Some versions show CPU spikes even for simple post aggregations)

Some examples of redundant code:

Try creating pagination for a page and you'll notice they use two variables $page and $paged for the same functionality and this has zero documentation, you need to spend hours and hours trying to find out if it was you or if the core of wordpress is so bad. Wordpress has become bloated because they want to maintain backwards compatibility with previous versions, which I think is a bad idea for NOW. They could easily launch a new version removing the support for old versions, just like JQuery did.

Don't get me wrong - Wordpress is the best blogging solution right now you'll ever find, that's so polished and so forth. But it's the worst CMS you can build on top off for your projects (been there!).

Right now, the best solution for me would be:

    rails generate scaffold Post name:string title:string content:text

Re: The dire state of WordPress

#48

Post by Chirael »

The main benefit to Wordpress is its built-in content editing system that's mostly accessible to end users. So you can build a site for someone and then show them how to use the nice admin interface and page editor, and let them manage the content themselves after you're gone, rather than having to be involved for every little page change afterward.

And of course as others have mentioned, the plugins are pretty great too. A client can ask you if you can do X (e.g., tie into their Twitter) and BAM, install a plugin, done, you look like a hero. Compare that to having to write/install/test something similar.

Re: The dire state of WordPress

#49

Post by runn1ng »

epoxyhockey wrote: post #12

I might be in the minority on HN, but I think that WordPress is doing fine just as it is. Whereas my gag reflex kicks in at the mention of a Drupal contract, WordPress is still pleasant-ish to work with. It's simple enough that I can get my own custom work done without having to spend a ton of time fighting the core system. Though, YMMV depending on the nature of the custom application, I'm sure.

I think it's the perfect example of "worse is better" approach.

Yes, it might not be perfect, but it does well what it says it does, it's quite simple to customize and you just upload it online and you are set.

Being nice internally is good. Being working with tons of available plugins is better.

Re: The dire state of WordPress

#50

Post by [deleted] »

epoxyhockey wrote: post #12

I might be in the minority on HN, but I think that WordPress is doing fine just as it is. Whereas my gag reflex kicks in at the mention of a Drupal contract, WordPress is still pleasant-ish to work with. It's simple enough that I can get my own custom work done without having to spend a ton of time fighting the core system. Though, YMMV depending on the nature of the custom application, I'm sure.

[deleted]
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