Today i spotted a blog post mentioning YAPB at bloggingbits.com – After reading the article i felt the urge to schoolmasterly correct one word: Hacking.

"nothing is stopping you from hacking WordPress to function as a photoblog"

What’s wrong with this sentence?

I just don’t like the word "hacking" in that context (arg!)

Hacking is the way of the spaghetti code ninja to extend a cms via manipulating the base code of the cms to achieve what he wants in a more or less small ammount of time. But if the cms gets updated, he has to apply all those changes a second time. Since cms’s get updated regulary (security updates), that can bunch up to a serious pile of work over time. Since the cms owner is stuck to the hacking codeninja he is also stuck to the last known hacked cms version even if it has serious security flaws.

Extending via a plugin on the other side is the way of the brave software developer (If the cms supports this). He examins the system to be extended in a very carefully way, sees all those provided hooks and programs the plugin. This way the cms user may update his cms installation whenever he wants/has to and has a pretty high chance the plugin will work afterwards. Until the cms internal hooks and dependecies stay compatible the owner may apply several updates until the plugin developer has to react on cms changes.

YAPB is a plugin and not a hack – So it’s extending WordPress ;-)

Harrhh – I’m so relaxed and relieved now. I’m such a monk.