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I for one would like to see a serious Go-based alternative to Wordpress. Virtually every major CMS out there uses PHP, and all of them are highly prone to hacki

I for one would like to see a serious Go-based alternative to Wordpress. Virtually every major CMS out there uses PHP, and all of them are highly prone to hacking.

arxpoetica 11y ago
I've had the same thought, but using Node (which is more accessible to a wider group of people). Part of the (sad) state of affairs that made WordPress so popular was accessibility to the code. Can't be overlooked.
- jlhonora 11y ago
  Ghost (https://ghost.org https://ghost.org) is built with Node
atjamielittle 11y ago
Would you say that they are prone to hacking solely because they are written in PHP? Is secure PHP impossible?
- lojack 11y ago
  Secure PHP is certainly possible, and not even that difficult. The problem is that insecure PHP is even easier to write. In my experience, most vulnerabilities tend to come from insecure, poorly written, unvetted third party plugins and libraries. Someone writes a plugin that creates a widget, security is either a non-thought or an afterthought. They think someone else might like the widget so they publish it. Thousands of people find it useful, even years after originally released. They are all unknowingly using an insecure piece of software.
apertoire 11y ago
There's already http://gohugo.io/ http://gohugo.io/, along with a starter project described in both these places: https://medium.com/@juanbrodriguez/hugulp-a-hugo-gulp-toolchain-94f72ccc3577 https://medium.com/@juanbrodriguez/hugulp-a-hugo-gulp-toolch... http://jbrodriguez.io/mobile-friendly-website-2/ http://jbrodriguez.io/mobile-friendly-website-2/
vec 11y ago
I don't think you're going to see a serious competitor to Wordpress in anything but PHP for a long time. The core target audience for a CMS is content creators and designers without strong compsci backgrounds. The things that make it hackable (trivial to modify in-place, extremely forgiving of type errors, no internal sandboxing, etc.) are the very things that make it attractive to non-developers. Nothing is going to dethrone Wordpress unless it's at least as easy to cargo cult, and anything that does will more or less by definition annoy experienced developers more than what it replaced.
- nine_k 11y ago
  The beauty (which can also be seen as a disadvantage) is that writing Go does not exactly require comp sci skills. I suspect that Go is even simpler than modern PHP as a language. You can of course go full comp sci implementing clever algorithms in Go, but you could do that in PHP, too, and none of content creators is usually interested in this.
  - cheald 11y ago
    Go requires knowledge of types, which already puts its cognitive complexity ahead of PHP for the typical content creator.
    - nine_k 11y ago
      Go's types can be explained as some sort of templates for values (especially record types). Any CMS user knows about templates.
    - Grazester 11y ago
      Are data types that complex a concept to grasp? When I started programming in VB I don't remember it being.
      - ddoolin 11y ago
        Maybe not, but it definitely requires you to sit down and learn & understand what's going on, often longer than most of these people want to spend on one particular subject that may not be part of their regular job.
melvinmt 11y ago
Question to Matt Mullenweb, co-founder of WordPress and Automattic: If you could instantly rewrite WordPress in any programming language, which would it be? Answer: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1jg781/i_am_matt_mullenweg_cofounder_of_wordpress_18_of/cbed1jk http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1jg781/i_am_matt_mulle...
steamy 11y ago
Even Node or Ruby based static site generators can't compete with WP & PHP on the server. The ubiquity of PHP on web server installations is astounding and the ease of use of WP sp. for non techies in contrast with the technical knowledge and expertise expected to build and maintain a Jekyll powered website or [insert your favorite Nodejs generator] powered website.
- atmosx 11y ago
  Sorry but that's doesn't seem like a compelling argument. We're not talking about editors... You don't choose the language based on the ubiquity of the language on UNIX/Windows servers, otherwise everything would be running on Perl probably. I guess most people, like me, choose the language they know/like and then setup the server accordingly.
  - steamy 11y ago
    We're talking about two completely different market segments here; the corporate/enterprise market which provides more room for creative & cutting edge solutions to be implemented and then there's the SME & consumers which favor more conventional, user-friendly and "popular" solutions like WP and the likes.
zyxley 11y ago
> Virtually every major CMS out there uses PHP This probably has to do with the majority of cheap web hosts out there offering only PHP, Perl, and (if you're really lucky) Rails.
- PopsiclePete 11y ago
  It's honestly one of the main reasons I got so late into the "my own web project" game. PHP and Perl to me are a ghetto. I refuse to touch them, learn them, look at them, know about them. And combine that with MySQL which is still worse IMO than Postgresql and "open source" web programming with the LAMP stack was just.................ugly. I sound like a bad person. I can't help it.
Kabukks 11y ago
I'm working on Journey[1] which, while "just" a blogging engine, has plugin support via Lua in the development branch. That feature is not stable yet, but hopefully in the next few days. [1] https://github.com/kabukky/journey https://github.com/kabukky/journey
stcredzero 11y ago
I would also like to see a serious Go-based alternative for forums. Simple Machines is truly excellent, but it's still in PHP. Go would be a far better alternative to build upon from the standpoint of security.

I for one would like to see a serious Go-based alternative to Wordpress. Virtually every major CMS out there uses PHP, and all of them are highly prone to hacking.

arxpoetica 11y ago

I've had the same thought, but using Node (which is more accessible to a wider group of people). Part of the (sad) state of affairs that made WordPress so popular was accessibility to the code. Can't be overlooked.

jlhonora 11y ago
Ghost (https://ghost.org https://ghost.org) is built with Node

atjamielittle 11y ago

Would you say that they are prone to hacking solely because they are written in PHP? Is secure PHP impossible?

lojack 11y ago
Secure PHP is certainly possible, and not even that difficult. The problem is that insecure PHP is even easier to write. In my experience, most vulnerabilities tend to come from insecure, poorly written, unvetted third party plugins and libraries. Someone writes a plugin that creates a widget, security is either a non-thought or an afterthought. They think someone else might like the widget so they publish it. Thousands of people find it useful, even years after originally released. They are all unknowingly using an insecure piece of software.

apertoire 11y ago

There's already http://gohugo.io/ http://gohugo.io/, along with a starter project described in both these places: https://medium.com/@juanbrodriguez/hugulp-a-hugo-gulp-toolchain-94f72ccc3577 https://medium.com/@juanbrodriguez/hugulp-a-hugo-gulp-toolch... http://jbrodriguez.io/mobile-friendly-website-2/ http://jbrodriguez.io/mobile-friendly-website-2/

vec 11y ago

I don't think you're going to see a serious competitor to Wordpress in anything but PHP for a long time. The core target audience for a CMS is content creators and designers without strong compsci backgrounds. The things that make it hackable (trivial to modify in-place, extremely forgiving of type errors, no internal sandboxing, etc.) are the very things that make it attractive to non-developers. Nothing is going to dethrone Wordpress unless it's at least as easy to cargo cult, and anything that does will more or less by definition annoy experienced developers more than what it replaced.

nine_k 11y ago
The beauty (which can also be seen as a disadvantage) is that writing Go does not exactly require comp sci skills. I suspect that Go is even simpler than modern PHP as a language. You can of course go full comp sci implementing clever algorithms in Go, but you could do that in PHP, too, and none of content creators is usually interested in this.
- cheald 11y ago
  Go requires knowledge of types, which already puts its cognitive complexity ahead of PHP for the typical content creator.
  - nine_k 11y ago
    Go's types can be explained as some sort of templates for values (especially record types). Any CMS user knows about templates.
  - Grazester 11y ago
    Are data types that complex a concept to grasp? When I started programming in VB I don't remember it being.
    - ddoolin 11y ago
      Maybe not, but it definitely requires you to sit down and learn & understand what's going on, often longer than most of these people want to spend on one particular subject that may not be part of their regular job.

melvinmt 11y ago

Question to Matt Mullenweb, co-founder of WordPress and Automattic: If you could instantly rewrite WordPress in any programming language, which would it be? Answer: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1jg781/i_am_matt_mullenweg_cofounder_of_wordpress_18_of/cbed1jk http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1jg781/i_am_matt_mulle...

steamy 11y ago

Even Node or Ruby based static site generators can't compete with WP & PHP on the server. The ubiquity of PHP on web server installations is astounding and the ease of use of WP sp. for non techies in contrast with the technical knowledge and expertise expected to build and maintain a Jekyll powered website or [insert your favorite Nodejs generator] powered website.

atmosx 11y ago
Sorry but that's doesn't seem like a compelling argument. We're not talking about editors... You don't choose the language based on the ubiquity of the language on UNIX/Windows servers, otherwise everything would be running on Perl probably. I guess most people, like me, choose the language they know/like and then setup the server accordingly.
- steamy 11y ago
  We're talking about two completely different market segments here; the corporate/enterprise market which provides more room for creative & cutting edge solutions to be implemented and then there's the SME & consumers which favor more conventional, user-friendly and "popular" solutions like WP and the likes.

zyxley 11y ago

> Virtually every major CMS out there uses PHP This probably has to do with the majority of cheap web hosts out there offering only PHP, Perl, and (if you're really lucky) Rails.

PopsiclePete 11y ago
It's honestly one of the main reasons I got so late into the "my own web project" game. PHP and Perl to me are a ghetto. I refuse to touch them, learn them, look at them, know about them. And combine that with MySQL which is still worse IMO than Postgresql and "open source" web programming with the LAMP stack was just.................ugly. I sound like a bad person. I can't help it.

Kabukks 11y ago

I'm working on Journey[1] which, while "just" a blogging engine, has plugin support via Lua in the development branch. That feature is not stable yet, but hopefully in the next few days. [1] https://github.com/kabukky/journey https://github.com/kabukky/journey

stcredzero 11y ago

I would also like to see a serious Go-based alternative for forums. Simple Machines is truly excellent, but it's still in PHP. Go would be a far better alternative to build upon from the standpoint of security.