WordPress with Page Builders as a Gateway to More Approachable Code

WordPress is a content management system based on MySQL and PHP, which can be used to create a good looking website involving HTML, CSS, and JavaScript without the user ever touching much of the base-level code. WordPress can does not even require any files to be downloaded, as simply creating an account at the WordPress website affords the user all of the necessary top-level functionality.

The real power of WordPress comes with plugins, as they allow the user access to a mired amount of powerful functions with no actual writing of code. In particular the page builder genre of plugins allows users to create pages using premade widgets designed for specific purposes that can be easily edited for both content and style again without the need for actual coding. This ease of use removes a barrier to website creation for a new class of users, ones who see a page of code as a mysterious and overwhelming cypher while still enjoying the fruits of that same code. This move towards accessibility expands the possible base of web creators, moving the web farther towards an even playing field and empowering a larger chunk of society, which has become one of the foundational ideas of the Internet.

One of the barriers standing between users and that glorious vision of the Internet future is the disconnect between what code looks like and what it produces. Typing a series of arcane codes into an HTML document is not only substantially different than the ways that humans give commands to most non-computerized objects, technology has advanced to the point that this entry method is fundamentally different to the way that most humans interact with technology at this point. Classic front end programming approximates to using a command line: It's faster, it's more powerful, and using it expands the user's knowledge of computers, but most people are unwilling to do so. There is an intimidation factor, which cannot be understated, but there is also simply less intuitive than the alternative. The adoption of the mouse, the graphical interface, and the touch screen has caused the user base of computers to explode, creating a need for the computer in everyday life that did not exist before.

A similar expansion in the ranks of programmers can be accomplished through the promotion of word press and page builders. WordPress with page builders is to HTML and CSS as a touchscreen is to the command line, the intuitive nature of the new technology makes it a more useful product for the general public. Just as the expansion of computer users created a more robust and diverse Internet community, lowering the barrier to website creation can create a more full programing community. Not everyone who starts website creation will with page builders will go any farther than that, just as not everyone who has a smart phone is computer literate. Expanding the opportunity to learn this essential part of the modern world will, however, bring some people into the world of programming, and that is good enough.