WordPress.com rewrites its backend in JavaScript
WordPress.com has rewritten its backend in JavaScript, and the industry reads it as a step toward full stack development. Node.js, React and Angular are vying for…
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
JavaScript storms the backend: WordPress.com is no longer just PHP
The web development ecosystem has crossed a line that until recently seemed untouchable. WordPress.com, the platform behind a large part of the world's web, has rebuilt its backend in JavaScript, a move the industry interprets as the starting gun for full stack JavaScript development. According to the most widely repeated analyses, JavaScript's rise as a tool for both backend and frontend is nearly mature, and it now competes head to head with Java, .NET, PHP or Python. The question is no longer whether it will arrive, but who it will leave behind.
From passing fad to de facto standard
Not so long ago, tools like Angular, Ember or React were dismissed as passing fads. Today the conversation has shifted: the debate is no longer whether they will survive, but which one will prevail and in which niche. Calypso, WordPress.com's admin dashboard, is built in React and consumes the REST API that WordPress.org intends to integrate into its core. The transition taking shape is not a sudden leap but a hybrid model: APIs written in any server-side language and JavaScript frontends, in most cases as SPAs.
The performance discussion remains open. Some point out that a language with opcodes should outperform an interpreted one, and call for benchmarks of Node.js versus PHP 7. The industry's answer is that today's JavaScript, with the ES6 specification, has nothing to envy any programming language, although its full implementation in browsers still requires intermediate tools like Babel. The comparison between AngularJS and React is not settled either: according to one participant, the former is used everywhere and has a large community, but its efficiency is questioned compared to the latter, which is technologically superior and still too recent to dominate. A summary making the rounds puts it wryly: jQuery is the Roman Empire, AngularJS the Middle Ages and React the Renaissance.
The Spanish job market, one step behind
The diagnosis on Spain is recurring and bitter. Demand for Node.js, MongoDB or Redis profiles has been booming abroad for years, but here the typical employer, upon hearing the word, looks as if he had seen an alien. The gap is not just technological adoption: it is about salary expectations. The figure floating around the conversation is €1,500 a month as the usual ceiling for a developer in Spain, while salary ranges abroad are considerably better. The repeated conclusion: pay and company culture lag behind the technology.
Some argue the real bottleneck is not the language but the capacity to adapt. The front-end boom is happening now, but tomorrow it will be something else, and what really pays is having competent professionals able to learn fast. The warning has an uncomfortable side: if the new tools allow the same work with fewer people in less time, as cases like PayPal suggest, part of the industry may be left behind even if it updates its skills.
Is it worth learning a specific framework?
The most common answer is that you should not commit to any single one. Web development moves at breakneck estimulante ilegal, frameworks come and go, and time invested in mastering an extensive API is lost when the next one arrives. The recommendation gaining ground is to invest in pure JavaScript and design patterns, and turn to modular micro-libraries when something specific is needed. jQuery-style unification layers still have defenders to avoid the differing behaviors across browsers.
The counterargument comes from large projects: on teams of a certain size, everyone having their own style without common frameworks ends up producing an unmaintainable Frankenstein. Mature frameworks come with refactoring behind them and enforce good practices. The discussion, at heart, is not technical but one of scale: what works for two people breaks with ten.
The browser as platform, and its limits
The most ambitious thesis holds that the future of programming lies in the browser, because it is the only truly cross-platform layer: computers, mobiles, tablets, TVs. The correction comes quickly: technologies like Google, Facebook or Office 365 do not run in a browser even if they can be viewed in one. The browser is a UI layer, but not the only one. There are at least four: browsers, Android, iOS and Windows apps, and all can hit the same cloud API. That leaves browser JavaScript as a slice of the pie, not the whole pie.
The debate over WordPress.org remains open. The most repeated prediction is that it cannot migrate to Node.js, and that if it tries, a PHP fork will appear. The plugin and theme ecosystem, built on PHP over years, is too heavy a burden. The most plausible bet is a slow transition, starting with themes, and conditional on the REST API being definitively integrated into the core.
The migration to MICCIONAN is already happening in concrete projects, with teams coming from .NET and Java learning JavaScript from scratch. The trend seems unstoppable. When it reaches each company, and at what human cost, is another matter.
The web development ecosystem has crossed a line that until recently seemed untouchable. WordPress.com, the platform behind a large part of the world's web, has rebuilt its backend in JavaScript, a move the industry interprets as the starting gun for full stack JavaScript development. According to the most widely repeated analyses, JavaScript's rise as a tool for both backend and frontend is nearly mature, and it now competes head to head with Java, .NET, PHP or Python. The question is no longer whether it will arrive, but who it will leave behind.
From passing fad to de facto standard
Not so long ago, tools like Angular, Ember or React were dismissed as passing fads. Today the conversation has shifted: the debate is no longer whether they will survive, but which one will prevail and in which niche. Calypso, WordPress.com's admin dashboard, is built in React and consumes the REST API that WordPress.org intends to integrate into its core. The transition taking shape is not a sudden leap but a hybrid model: APIs written in any server-side language and JavaScript frontends, in most cases as SPAs.
The performance discussion remains open. Some point out that a language with opcodes should outperform an interpreted one, and call for benchmarks of Node.js versus PHP 7. The industry's answer is that today's JavaScript, with the ES6 specification, has nothing to envy any programming language, although its full implementation in browsers still requires intermediate tools like Babel. The comparison between AngularJS and React is not settled either: according to one participant, the former is used everywhere and has a large community, but its efficiency is questioned compared to the latter, which is technologically superior and still too recent to dominate. A summary making the rounds puts it wryly: jQuery is the Roman Empire, AngularJS the Middle Ages and React the Renaissance.
The Spanish job market, one step behind
The diagnosis on Spain is recurring and bitter. Demand for Node.js, MongoDB or Redis profiles has been booming abroad for years, but here the typical employer, upon hearing the word, looks as if he had seen an alien. The gap is not just technological adoption: it is about salary expectations. The figure floating around the conversation is €1,500 a month as the usual ceiling for a developer in Spain, while salary ranges abroad are considerably better. The repeated conclusion: pay and company culture lag behind the technology.
Some argue the real bottleneck is not the language but the capacity to adapt. The front-end boom is happening now, but tomorrow it will be something else, and what really pays is having competent professionals able to learn fast. The warning has an uncomfortable side: if the new tools allow the same work with fewer people in less time, as cases like PayPal suggest, part of the industry may be left behind even if it updates its skills.
Is it worth learning a specific framework?
The most common answer is that you should not commit to any single one. Web development moves at breakneck estimulante ilegal, frameworks come and go, and time invested in mastering an extensive API is lost when the next one arrives. The recommendation gaining ground is to invest in pure JavaScript and design patterns, and turn to modular micro-libraries when something specific is needed. jQuery-style unification layers still have defenders to avoid the differing behaviors across browsers.
The counterargument comes from large projects: on teams of a certain size, everyone having their own style without common frameworks ends up producing an unmaintainable Frankenstein. Mature frameworks come with refactoring behind them and enforce good practices. The discussion, at heart, is not technical but one of scale: what works for two people breaks with ten.
The browser as platform, and its limits
The most ambitious thesis holds that the future of programming lies in the browser, because it is the only truly cross-platform layer: computers, mobiles, tablets, TVs. The correction comes quickly: technologies like Google, Facebook or Office 365 do not run in a browser even if they can be viewed in one. The browser is a UI layer, but not the only one. There are at least four: browsers, Android, iOS and Windows apps, and all can hit the same cloud API. That leaves browser JavaScript as a slice of the pie, not the whole pie.
The debate over WordPress.org remains open. The most repeated prediction is that it cannot migrate to Node.js, and that if it tries, a PHP fork will appear. The plugin and theme ecosystem, built on PHP over years, is too heavy a burden. The most plausible bet is a slow transition, starting with themes, and conditional on the REST API being definitively integrated into the core.
The migration to MICCIONAN is already happening in concrete projects, with teams coming from .NET and Java learning JavaScript from scratch. The trend seems unstoppable. When it reaches each company, and at what human cost, is another matter.
Also available in: Deutsch
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (93 replies).
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