Pressing info about WordPress

Web logs have been creeping up and have grown very popular over the past 10 years. Over time, the name was shortened from "web log" to "blog." Blogs are a great creative outlet. They are like the (public) diaries of the 21st century. Blogs give anyone the chance to have an online presence and voice. Why do you think I use it? Some people create blogs for entertainment, others do it to share important information, still others do it for commercial reasons.

Regardless of your reason for writing or reading blogs, they have become a huge part of our online culture.

Mike Little, one of the co-founders of WordPress(and a mentor for YRS's Festival of Code) was kind enough to answer some of my questions.

What is your background, Mike?

I am a long term software developer. I wrote my first program back in 1978 whilst still at School. I started learning programming in earnest round about 1982 on home computers. I started my first professional computing job in 1990 and have worked in software development ever since.

What inspired you to create WordPress?

WordPress was a fork of an older piece of software that had been practically been abandoned. Matt(the co-founder) and I took that code- because  of its open source and licensing, we were allowed to do that- and updated it, fixed bugs, and released it as WordPress.

What makes WordPress different than other blog template sites?

WordPress is now much, much more than blogging software- it is used on some very sophisticated complex sites. But what set it apart in its early days was its ease of use(something it still prides itself in) and the modern(at the time) standards compliant output.

What advice do you have for aspiring hackers?

Get involved in an Open Source project. If you are not confident with coding, start by testing bug fixes that other people have created(usually in the form of patches or pull requests from a git repository) and figure out if the fix works, and why. When you become more confident, try creating your own fixes to bugs and submit those patches. Expect to find you've not fixed all cases or missed some aspect. On a good project, someone will give you a constructive criticism about your patch. And telling you exactly what is wrong with it in detail *is* constructive- it just doesn't always feel like it!

What's the next project?

My day job is developing WordPress solutions for clients, consulting, and training in WordPress. There is no "project."

Favorite code language?

No real favorites; I've worked in more than 20 programming languages and a good few mark up languages(including some I created myself) I do have a soft spot for Perl though I don't use it often.

Read any good books or seen any good movies lately?

I am always reading good books! I recently read the Game of Thrones set, re-read both the Twilight and Harry Potter series, and am currently reading a fascinating book. It is called "The Introvert Advantage" by Marti Olsen Laney, which is giving me some helpful insights in to my own head.

Whilst I love movies, I don't seem to find the time to watch any at the moment.

Readers, f you've got something to say, or really just want to vent, I suggest you start your own blog! Perhaps Mike can give you some WordPress pointerS!!