WordPress
WordPress is a web publishing system (a.k.a. content management system) written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database. WordPress is used to manage frequently-updated Web content, especially Weblogs. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License and is available free of charge.
History
The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matthew Mullenweg. WordPress is the official successor of b2\cafelog and has a thriving user and developer community.
WordPress currently supports one weblog or site per installation but you can still have more than one WordPress blog in the same server, even on the same database.
WordPress releases are named after well-known jazz musicians (e.g. Mingus). Version 1.5, released mid-February 2005 and codenamed "Strayhorn" after Billy Strayhorn, added a range of new vital features. One such is being able to manage static pages. This allows content pages to be created and managed outside the normal blog chronology and has been the first step away from being simple blog management software to becoming a full content management system. Another is the new template/theme system, which allows users to easily activate and deactivate 'skins' for their sites. WordPress was also equipped with a new default template (codenamed Kubrick after the late Stanley Kubrick) designed by Michael Heilemann.
After SixApart altered Movable Type's licensing structure in 2004, WordPress became a popular alternative, and many MT users angered by the new license, migrated to WordPress.
The current version of WordPress is 1.5.1.3.
Features
- Generates standards-compliant XML, XHTML and CSS
- Integrated link management
- Understandable permalink structure (cruft-free)
- Extensible plugin support
- Nested categories and multiple categories for articles
- TrackBack and Pingback
- Typographic filters for proper formatting and styling of text
- ...more features
Developers
WordPress development is led by Ryan Boren and Matt Mullenweg. Matt and Mike Little were the co-founders of the project.
The contributing developers are
Notable WordPress Powered Blogs
- Matt Mullenweg
- Michael Heilemann
- Mathias Bynens
- Markku Seguerra
- Lars Holst
- Ethan Marcotte
- Joen Asmussen
- Rob Mientjes
- Eric Meyer
- Apple Student Blog