I’m unconvinced that it’s even possible to write clean code in a language as fucked-up as PHP.
Comment on 4chan hacked and taken offline. Hacker reopens /qa/ and leaks all admins emails.
Realitaetsverlust@lemmy.zip 3 days agoI mean, the source code looks a lot cleaner than WordPress, which is an incredibly sad statement.
Kill WordPress now.
futatorius@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Realitaetsverlust@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Your opinion was correct like 10 years ago. PHP7 made a lot of fixes to many of the problems it had and PHP8 improved on it even more. And if you slap a framework on top of it, like laravel, PHP looks awesome.
ProtecyaTec@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Really though, it doesn’t.
I absolutely hate the way 4chan formats their HTML + PHP intermingling in views. That’s not to say WordPress doesn’t do this as well, but oh man in a much better, cleaner, and more sparingly way. The 4chan imageboard view Github -> 4chan is absolute chaos. Why this wasn’t rewritten is beyond me. That’s just the first thing I see as I peruse the source, I can’t imagine it gets much better from here.
Realitaetsverlust@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
but oh man in a much better, cleaner, and more sparingly way
I don’t think we’re looking at the same source code. The first thing I see in wp-activate.php:
function wpmu_activate_stylesheet() { ?> <style type="text/css"> .wp-activate-container { width: 90%; margin: 0 auto; } .wp-activate-container form { margin-top: 2em; } #submit, #key { width: 100%; font-size: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; } #language { margin-top: 0.5em; } .wp-activate-container .error { background: #f66; color: #333; } span.h3 { padding: 0 8px; font-size: 1.3em; font-weight: 600; } </style> <?php }
This isn’t better nor cleaner. This is a disaster. A function that stops PHP execution halfway-through, outputs some text and then restarts PHP execution? Hell, I’ve been in the PHP ecosystem for over a decade now and I didn’t even know this was possible and I wish that knowledge was still hidden from me.
Maybe I was wrong by saying that the 4chan source code is better than wordpress, fair. Maybe I should just say both are abominations, I will not judge which one is better and both should be discarded and forgotten.
bufalo1973@lemm.ee 2 days ago
This has been possible since the very beginning of PHP.
I won’t say if this is the best way now. I haven’t touch PHP in the last 2 decades.
ProtecyaTec@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I completely disagree.
Intermingling PHP and HTML is one of PHP strengths. The processing/executing difference you’re describing is almost always negligible due to how PHP is optimized (specifically for this kind of thing).
Seriously, compare this to the 4chan image board view linked above, we really aren’t looking at the same source code. In comparison, this is blocked, purposeful, together. It’s a single CSS block output all at once. On the otherhand, in the linked 4chan discussion board PHP file, it echos as strings, broken up by multiple conditionals, and difficult from an IDE perspective to tell where a block starts and where it ends (again due to it being echo’d in strings, and broken by conditionals). Trying to modify this blocked CSS is going to be wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy easier than trying to modify a bunch of printed HTML strings broken up by multiple nested conditionals. Plus it’s just straight-up easier to read and straight-forward to understand what the function does right away.
I can’t think of a single system that doesn’t “stop PHP executing” at some point to output HTML in some way. Maybe an app that dynamically pulls it’s views in through JS I guess.
Realitaetsverlust@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Intermingling PHP and HTML is one of PHP strengths
Eeeh, no. It’s a bad practice in 2025. That was a good thing a decade ago.
Trying to modify this blocked CSS is going to be wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy easier than trying to modify a bunch of printed HTML strings broken up by multiple nested conditionals. Plus it’s just straight-up easier to read and straight-forward to understand what the function does right away.
True. But I was just looking at the source code of wordpress for 30 seconds. I could probably find worse.
To harp on this even more, one of the benefits of blocking HTML in this way is IDE highlighting.
Which isn’t a problem if you use a template engine - as you should in modern applications.
I can’t think of a single system that doesn’t “stop PHP executing” at some point to output HTML in some way.
Not a single modern system does that. It’s terrible practice and won’t even pass automated code reviews with sane settings.
Scrollone@feddit.it 3 days ago
Also, the owner of Wordpress is allegedly a piece of s…
jodanlime@midwest.social 3 days ago
I wish people would stop censuring themselves on lemmy like they do for the other social medias. You can say shit, and a lot worse now that you aren’t asking a corpo for permission to speak.
towerful@programming.dev 2 days ago
Censoring*
Censure is like a harsh criticism
KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
I think he did it because the actual WordPress guy (Matt Mullenweg) is really litigious.
arudesalad@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
Seriously, with views like his I don’t know how he ended up owning a place like tumblr
diemartin@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
…panish Inquisition
Fenrir@lemmings.world 2 days ago
Didn’t expect that
diemartin@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Nobody does 😔
harmsy@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Shaaaaaving cream! Be nice and clean! Shave every day and you’ll always look keen!
mPony@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Aaah, someone of culture, I see.
anomnom@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Stilton Cheese?
Satin undies?
Shit?
lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
Close. Soiled undies.
hayes_@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Ssssssandwiches