WordPress Information

This website has been constructed with WordPress software and it is hosted on WordPress.com.

In 2003 WordPress was originally based on TinyMCE, software that is used by many forums. Themes were introduced in 2005 to provide basic templates that would provide a solid basis for users to develop their own blogs and websites.

Around 2017 the Gutenburg project was commenced to rewrite WordPress, as it was showing its age, not least when compared to other competitive products that were beginning to appear.

In outline, the basis of all functionality was to be a block, and it became known, not unnaturally, as the Block Editor. The first version of the Block Editor was launched near the end of 2018, and subsequent releases have appeared every 3 to 4 months. The original WordPress was still supported, now known as the Classic Editor.

The main objective of phase 2 of the Gutenberg project was to extend the use of blocks to all other parts of WordPress, e.g. headers, footers, sidebars, widgets, menus et cetera. This came under the general title of the site editor. Other features were developed, noticeably Patterns which would allow pre-defined sections of content to be inserted into a page or post.

As work commenced, it was realised that significant refinement work was required on blocks that had been developed in phase 1. In addition, items such as menus proved extremely difficult to implement within a block architecture.

The concept of block themes was born, in part to isolate all this new stuff from older functionality. Older themes were unsurprisingly now called classic themes.

It was only with the release of WordPress 6.4 in November 2023 that phase 2 was officially declared to be finished. The site editor is now simply called the editor. All new themes are now typically block themes although classic themes are still supported.

Phase 3 is named Collaboration, the objective being to support multiple developers on a single project. As I am writing this in November 2023, it remains to be seen how any new functionality that is developed within this phase may impact phase 1 and 2 functionality. Phase 4 will be Internationalisation, that is improved support for multiple languages.

Arguably the main question throughout the Gutenberg project has been, and remains, what will happen to old WordPress, what is now called the Classic Editor? The latest information that I have heard was that support for it will cease at the end of 2023. However, given the slow take-up of all these new goodies, I can see that support will probably continue for quite some time.

As shown below, I began in 2018 to pen brief summaries that generally coincide with individual releases. They are probably principally useful as background material for anybody who is interested in the history of the product.

If you wish to keep abreast of WordPress developments then here are some links:

WP Tavern
Make WordPress Core
WordPress Releases
Gutenberg Times