WordPress 1.5 (codename: strayhorn) is out!
Cool, the new version we’ve all heard so much about has finally been released.
Ok, there have been nightly builds available of 1.5, but today marks the release of the stable version of 1.5.
One of the big changes in my mind is the move to use themes.
Looking at wordpress today, and looking at b2/cafelog(the blogging script/engine that wordpress originated from), you can see that it has grown a lot in the past few years.
Back in 2002, when I finally got my own domain, I looked around at other blogs to see what was the popular tool of the day.
I wanted to move away from hosted services such as blogger and venture out on my own.
I noticed that so many bloggers in various online communities were using b2 at the time. As well as GreyMatter and MovableType. So, going with what most at the time thought was the best available, I jumped aboard the bandwagon and installed b2.
There was a short period of time when the original b2 developer, Michel V disappeared from the web for awhile. Everyone was getting worried and asking in the forums “what happened to Michel“? and many worried about the future of the blogging software they had become reliant upon.
Around about that time, people were starting to make “fork” projects from b2 including WordPress and b2Evolution.
I remember this announcement back in April of 2003. (Wow, wordpress is nearly 2!).
WordPress in my opinion, was a big step up from the days of b2. But I must say, b2 even during it’s day, was quite impressive. I remember chatting with Michel V several times on IRC several years ago.
I’ve observed much of the evolving of wordpress, from its’ beginnings as one of the b2 fork projects.
b2 was always quite popular with individuals writing hacks for it to customise it the way they wanted.
When users switched over to the newer, evolving wordpress, they added their hacks there too. And then the wordpress plugin architecture was introduced, this greatly improved the ability for users to develop and implement these additions more easily. Those with minimal techinical knowledge could now add plugins to customise their blog without worrying too much about “screwing up” their blog completely by modifying/adding code to the wrong areas.
I mean, clicking on “Activate” or “Deactivate” is really easy right? It’s a clear on/off switch!
A blogging script should, in my opinion, be as light as possible. Just the engine, not too much more. The bare minimum in fact.
Have a plugin type system to provide the rest of the missing functionality.
Of course, you’ll have to decide upon what is the minimal functionality you think are core to the application. Of course, you’d probably want the user to be able to login, post new posts, post comments, do trackbacks/pingbacks, comment moderation, and maybe a few other items you feel may be essential. Of course, not everyone uses comments and not everyone uses pingbacks or trackbacks. So perhaps they should be plugins that can be activated/deactivated quite easily by users?
I will be upgrading this blog to 1.5 sometime soon when I have the time. Expect some downtime when that occurs.
Perhaps I might try my own hand at making a template after the upgrade.