Code Like a Writer

“Code like a writer” seems like a recipe for disaster on its face. But it’s actually a helpful way for some of us to approach WordPress development.

Many of us in the WordPress community didn’t necessarily start out as programmers or Computer Science grads. But most of us probably did some kind of writing before coming to WordPress. Maybe we still do, managing site content or writing posts.

Crafting clean, bug-free, effective code is easier when you approach writing code as an editor approaches copy, or as a writer approaches a story.

Typos cause white screens. Confusing conditionals makes collaboration difficult. Failure to comment things makes it difficult for others to contribute to your theme or plugin.

This is a lightning-session-length presentation that puts good coding practices, specifically WordPress coding standards, into terms that people can understand to make it easier to build sites with WordPress and contribute back to the WordPress community. My own background as a magazine editor and copy editor for 8 years before starting to develop with WordPress gives me the experience to present this material with confidence.

Speaker

Categories