A fork with a clear vision
WordPress was born in May 2003 as a fork of b2/cafelog, a PHP-based blogging platform whose development had stalled. Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little picked up the codebase with a clear objective: to build an elegant publishing system, compliant with web standards and accessible to users without technical expertise.
The first release, WordPress 0.7, established the project’s foundational principles: a simple administration interface, a clean text editor and the generation of readable permalinks that replace dynamic URLs with structured, permanent addresses.
An editor for writers
WordPress’s interface is designed around the act of writing. The administration panel clearly separates content management from system configuration. The author accesses an editor that handles formatting, categories and publication status without requiring knowledge of HTML or PHP.
Content is organised into posts — chronological publications — and pages — static content outside the timeline. The category system and the built-in comments feature complete the editorial model, designed around the blog as a form of two-way communication.
Theme and plugin architecture
WordPress’s template engine is based on PHP: a theme is a set of PHP files that define the HTML structure of pages, mixing presentation logic and markup. This approach makes theme creation accessible to anyone familiar with HTML and CSS, with PHP used for dynamic parts.
The plugin architecture allows functionality to be extended without modifying the core. A plugin hooks into the system through hooks — predefined extension points in the codebase — and can add features ranging from contact form management to editor behaviour modification. The mechanism is straightforward: a PHP function registered on a hook is executed when WordPress reaches that point in the execution flow.
Installation and requirements
WordPress requires a server running PHP 4.1 or higher and a MySQL database. The famous five-minute installation — extract the archive, create a database, fill in the configuration file — removes the technical barrier that characterises other CMS platforms of the era.
The system uses MySQL to store content, metadata and configuration, with a readable and well-documented table schema. Media files are saved to the local filesystem and referenced from the database. This straightforward architecture simplifies backup, migration and understanding of the internal workings even for administrators with limited experience.