[wp-hackers] This was painful to read...

[Jeremy Clarke]

On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 9:06 PM, Stephen Rider
<wp-hackers at striderweb.com> wrote:
> No distinct need for it to be in core if it can readily be done with a plugin.  Let's leave the default as is, and make it *easy* for plugins to do all this as needed.

I think this is definitely the right way to go. In the original linked
article they said Django was the winner. In talking to Django devs my
sense is that what they love is how one line of API driven code
accomplishes what takes a dozen slow-loading clicks in Drupal, and
that 90% of the time that one line should never change for the life of
the site, so having it outside the admin is good for business, cause
clients can't mess it up etc.

Things like adding categories to posts or setting up a custom post
type should work that way. Simple bits of API code you can add in
functions.php for a theme that set up the admin with little friction.
It makes sense for them to be in functions.php because without the
theme that supports the custom content type why have the admin? This
is exactly how the current widgets/sidebars system works in WP and its
awesome as anyone who has used it has probably noticed.

Once these options are accessible via short bits of code it becomes
easy for a plugin to step in and offer a lightweight UI to make things
accessible via the admin, like the role/capability plugins do now.

WP is already on its way to being as configurable as Django behind the
scenes without becoming painfully bloated like Drupal on the frontend.
IMHO its just a matter of continuing on the same path of keeping it
simple for self-installers while offering robust API for developers.

-- 
Jeremy Clarke | http://jeremyclarke.org
Code and Design | http://globalvoicesonline.org