Lessons from WordPress core
on how to (not) write code
You can’t afford WordPress code
WordPress core development
- technical debt → popularity
- popularity → volunteers
- volunteers → technical debt
WordPress in StackOverflow survey
- 6th Most Dreaded Platform (2018)
- 3rd Most Dreaded Platform (2017)
- 2nd Most Dreaded Technology (2016)
- 3rd Most Dreaded Technology (2015)
Not “is it good?”
but “what is good?”
Best APIs
- Custom Post Types (74% positive)
- Plugin (hooks) (75%)
- Custom Taxonomies (70%)
- Queue (CSS and JS) (70%)
- Options and Transients (57%)
Best APIs — commonalities
- laconic
- procedural
- flexible
- public
Worst APIs
- Rewrite (59% negative)
- XML–RPC (61%)
- List Tables (53%)
- Editor (48%)
- Filesystem (47%)
Worst APIs — commonalities
- verbose
- persistent
- clunky
- semi–private
WordPress is a story
not
a blueprint
Be WordPress–good, not WordPress–bad
- make great APIs
- hold on to your wins
- part with your failures
- love users and developers
- write reliable flexible code
