This content originally appeared on dbushell.com and was authored by dbushell.com
My last blog post — “Modern WordPress - Yikes!” — has gotten a lot of traction. What I’ve seen has largely been in agreement and sharing my pain. I did not enjoy writing it, even less so sharing it, but I felt it had to be said.
Corrections
WordPress core contributor and theme developer Jessica Lyschik was kind enough to reply on Mastodon:
@dbushell I think there are some misunderstanding here: Viewport Width in patterns refers to the preview when inserting patterns and have no effect on the frontend.
The reason patterns are not stored in the HTML files and are in PHP instead is that it enables pattern strings to be translateable.
I agree that some parts could use some refinement or should have thought through a bit better.
TT4 serves as a way of showcasing how things can be done in different ways. There‘s no right or wrong.
Going on to say:
@dbushell I‘ve worked on TT4 with the environment that was given there. Most of the things you mention are not directly a cause of the theme but of the underlying architecture of Gutenberg itself.
I very much appreciate this feedback considering how strong my criticism was.
A few others, like Hendrik Luehrsen on Twitter, also corrected me on the Viewport Width front matter property. On this the docs say:
Viewport Width: The width of the
<iframe>viewport when previewing the pattern (in pixels).
My original article misrepresents this value as being directly related to CSS styling. I could argue there is a strong relationship to the presentation but I’ll concede for the sake of strict correctness. I’ve no excuse not to have researched that thoroughly. I don’t think this invalidates any of the issues I raised though.
Although I used the Twenty Twenty-Four theme as an example, my issues are indeed with the “underlying architecture of Gutenberg itself”, as Jessica puts it. On reflection, I don’t think I did a good enough job explaining that point. The flagship theme is just a symptom, not the cause. I think it’s bad but I don’t see how it could be better. I genuinely believe it is impossible to code a modern WordPress in any logical or maintainable way. Full-site editor templates are built upon Gutenberg. Gutenberg is a hack, not a framework.
Alternatives
I tried with Gutenberg, I really did. The Gutenberg block editor was released in version 5.0 December 2018. For over five years I tried. I went all-in from day one. I’ve built dozens of bespoke WordPress themes fully embracing the block editor. Gutenberg is a failed experiment. The core architecture of WordPress is a broken, tangled, unmaintainable mess.
The obvious alternative to all this madness is to stick with PHP templates and the Classic Editor plugin to disable Gutenberg entirely. Many people responding to my article did this a long time ago. For the first time ever, I’ve admitted defeat and installed this plugin on my latest project.
Some have suggestion ClassicPress. With that I’d be concerned about plugin compatibility and security. WordPress is a big target for hackers, I don’t know if I’d trust a fork.
Others have suggested theme builders like Elementor and Bricks. Honestly, I hate these plugins. I don’t want to code for proprietary frameworks. There is too much lock-in with non-transferable code and skills. To use an idiom, they “throw the baby out with the bathwater”. Why even use WordPress at that point?
Yeah that is a good question, why am I even using WordPress?
This content originally appeared on dbushell.com and was authored by dbushell.com
dbushell.com | Sciencx (2024-05-13T10:00:00+00:00) Modern WordPress – an Update. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2024/05/13/modern-wordpress-an-update/
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