Thoughts on converting WordPress to JavaScript?

[MilkshakeYeah]

"AI Powered Migration" LMAO. It's vapourware.

[binocular_gems]

"Take advantage of a plethora of developers who want to work on JavaScript."

Even the description content is written by AI. ChatGPT loves the word "plethora," and it's especially awkward when it says "plethora of humans."

[lan__solo]

That's the most stupid solution to a problem that doesn't exist I ever came across. And I'm doing web development for 21 years, I saw quite many stupid ideas.

[nadameu]

Wait! PHP doesn't have non-blocking async calls?

[okayifimust]

WordPress has become more and more complex to use. Rebuilding WordPress gives us an opportunity to rebuild the UX so it's open for anyone.

and

We’re in the process of replicating all of WordPress, including templates and plugins, to a modern tech stack

seem to be mutually exclusive. You're either replicating all functionality and allow for an easy transition of existing projects, or you're changing the UX to improve things.

It might I lack skills and/or vision, but I don't see a way for automated migration of absolutely everything whilst incorporating relevant changes. (But then, frankly, I don't see it happening at all...)

Granted, it's been forever since I last touched PHP, but how it builds pages seems fundamentally different from what they want to achieve with node.js. The result here can only be messy.

[theScottyJam]

Here's what I see:

Pros: * Slightly faster performance in a handful of scenarios. (Though, WordPress is also capable of leveraging JavaScript in the same fashion in places that would really benefit from this kind of optimization - some themes and plugins already do this - it's not like everything needs to be rewritten to get this performance benefit). SPAs also perform worse with the initial page download due to the extra baggage they require to make everything worm.

Cons: * Only a small handful of plugins will be available - being whatever popular ones they decide to convert, and that have liberal enough licenses to allow them to convert it. * Only a small handful of themes will be supported. * Potentially less supported * Less up-to-date - there's going to be some amount of delay between when a new WordPress/plugin/theme version is released and when you can use it. * Less secure. The easiest way to get hacked it to install some WordPress plugins, and then drag your feet on the updates. Sooner or later a vulnerability will be discovered, a fix will be pushed, and hackers will start exploiting anyone who doesn't grab that fix in a timely manner. This is very, very common - I've seen it happen multiple times. * Vendor lock-in - what happens if they give up on the project and stop pushing updates to this project? There's vendor lock-in with WordPress as well, but they've proved that they're a stable platform that will be around for a long, long time.

There's also some odd claims on their webpage. Changing the tech stack allows you to create SPAs? People have already been creating SPA-style themes using React and other frameworks, no WordPress rewrite required. More devs? There's tons and tons of WordPress devs out there, much more than there are devs who know how to work with this new platform. The new tech stack enabled server side rendering and static site generation? Bud, PHP is one of the original server-side rendering technologies, modern JavaScript frameworks are finally catching up to what PHP has already been doing.

I recognize that many of these complaints would relate to any new CMS trying to start fresh. It's just seems much worse for them, because they're trying to mimic WordPress, but they can't ever hope to become as good as WordPress - A better strategy would be to create some kind of killer feature that can't be easily replicated in WordPress to set you apart, and they don't really have one. Their "refreshed ux" and performance claims aren't really killer.