In 2016, I wrote a post about why WordPress is a foundation, not a framework. Though I don’t participate much on social media any more (I certainly lurk, but don’t converse), I’ll see things I’ve not thought about, things I’ve thought about, and things worth reconsidering.
And in an effort to continue writing more regularly and to revisit things I’ve previously written (because that’s healthy, right?), I thought I’d address something I recently read:
We need to stop thinking of WordPress as a CMS and start thinking of it as a framework.
There’s a litmus test as to what defines a framework and what defines a foundation
- A framework doesn’t function until someone builds something using the tools it offers.
- A foundation is an application that can run on its own without any additional functionality but it offers APIs that allows developers to build things on top of it.
To that end, WordPress is a foundation. Not a framework.
Note: It’s not that I don’t want to attribute the quote to the specific person out of disrespect; on the contrary, I’ve seen enough subtweeting and general unpleasant discourse online that I don’t want to spur that. It’s not about talking about the person; it’s about talking about the idea.
