herb miller - WordPress plugin specialist

WordPress core bundled themes by version

Here’s a table of the themes bundled into WordPress core by version.

Languages

1. First (proper) language: Algol W 2. Had difficulties: Simula 3. Most used: Pascal 4. Totally hate: LISP 5. Loved: Pascal 6. For beginners: n/a

Ten years after IBM

It’s been 10 years since I retired from IBM. Since then I’ve been a web developer. I also wrote a book called Seriously Bonkers.

Apostrophes

It s a cryin shame.
It s really not that fair.
I ve this need for apostrophes,
but there isn t one to spare.

I ll find a way around it.
They re easy to replace.
Just use the missing letters
that used to take their place.

If you use the rules
it s not that hard to see
when you could ve used one
or where it shouldn t be.

I m sure that readers everywhere
will appreciate your time
eradicating excess ones
from each and every line.

And then there ll be some spare ones
so I can help you see
a proper use for the single quote;
as an a'p'os tro'phe.

To see the missing letters, hover over the space where the apostrophe might have been.

Notes

When you’re writing HTML an apostrophe can be represented by:

' which may appear as '

or

’ which may appear as ’ – right single quotation mark

aka a curly closing single quote.

See Wikipedia for more information on Apostrophes, especially those showing omission.

when using WordPress

When using the Gutenberg block editor, the chance of ‘ making a round trip and reappearing as ‘ in the editor is pretty slim.
It gets converted to the character you may have wanted.
Sometimes an apostrophe gets converted to a left single quotation mark.
This is due to texturisation logic trying to match left and right single quotation marks.
Gor blimey guv’nor, that’s what’s ‘appen’d ‘ere.

Top 10 WordPress Misconceptions

Extensive research has allowed me to produce the Top 10 misconceptions about WordPress. Please share wisely.

This poem was originally published as a WordPress website at wp-secrets.co.uk, on 7^th May 2015.

1. Just for blogs

The people who think WordPress

is only good for blogs

Probably think that tails are

only there for wagging dogs

I don’t know what it means either
but I had to get the poem started.

2. Insecure

WordPress isn’t insecure

We patch it every day

With 2-8-3 contributors

to keep hackers at bay

283 was the number of contributors
in early 2015. It’s been much higher in recent releases. On the down side, the
security problem with WordPress 4.7 was probably enough to make this item one
not two.

3. Poor code since it’s free

People think the code is poor

Just because it’s free.

But quality is not affected

By the price of tea

The quality of software

Depends on many things

The skills of you and me perhaps

But not the count of chings

Opinion: WordPress code quality could be improved by
better coverage in its automated test suite. I know that’s true of my plugins.
I’m working on it.

4. WordPress .org versus .com

WordPress dot org and wp dot com

Are really not the same

Wp dot org’s a free for all

Dot com defines the game

Pronouce wp as “duppy”, like Joe
Hoyle does when he’s talking about WordPress code, and this verse should scan a
bit better.

5. All look the same

When you’ve seen one WordPress site

Then you’ve seen them all?

There are more variations

Than leaves that turn in fall

6. Ecommerce

WordPress is no good they say

To make an online shop

But install Woo or EDD

They’ll shop until they drop

I’ve visited hundreds of sites

That had a shopping cart

And 55% of them

Had WordPress at their heart

Don’t believe the statistics; I
made them up.

7. No future

Some people think that since

It’s free that it’ll go away

I’ll tell you now there’s thousands

Who’ll ensure that it will stay

8. Limited support

So if your website fatals

How do you get it back?

There’s many support channels

But don’t ask in core slack.

WordPress uses Slack to discuss things. The ‘core’
channel is for discussing core development.

9. For beginners

It’s easy to get started

But how far can you go?

Just ask “is there a limit?”

The answer will be “No!”

10. Not scalable

Two hundred millions visits

In just over a week

And on a really busy day

5K per sec at peak

No, I haven’t checked if this makes
sense. But WordPress is scalable. Ask any WordPress.com or WordPress VIP
developer. It might cost a few bob. And it may not be as fast as a different
solution.

On the downside, some code when
running on some hosts can demonstrate absolutely atrocious performance. And
it’s not always the database to blame. So query monitor won’t help you.

Others

Those were the top 10 that I’ve found

I’m sure there’s many more

But each can be refuted

Of that you can be sure

Caveats

Some caveats for those who know… YES

There is expensive hosting

Plugins can make your website slow

And SEO needs Yoasting.

This poem was originally published as a WordPress website at wp-secrets.co.uk on 7^th May 2015.

WordPress-Sucks-because-Top-10-WordPress-misconceptions-by-Herb-Miller Download the PDF

Inateck BK2003 – what do the keys do?

I bought an Inateck BK2003 for my iPad recently.

For those of you with a UK keyboard, here’s what some of the keys do when augmented by alt.

BTW: I copied these tables from Logitech Ultrathin keyboard – which I created when I was looking for the hash ( # ) key to create a Twitter hash tag. alt-3

They haven’t been updated yet

123456 – Top row

Character	Keys	For – not the official term
\|	alt-`	vertical bar
¡	alt-1	inverted exclamation
€	alt-2	Euro symbol
#	alt-3	hash character
€	alt-4	Euro symbol
∞	alt-5	infinity symbol
§	alt-6	section symbol
¶	alt-7	paragraph symbol
•	alt-8	bullet
ª	alt-9	underscored amount
º	alt-0	underscored zero
–	alt–	ndash?
–≠	alt-=	not equals

qwerty row

Character	Keys	For
œ	alt-q
∑	alt-w	Sigma
´	alt-e	forward tick
®	alt-r	Registered Trade mark
†	alt-t	cross sign
¥	alt-y	Yen currency symbol
¨	alt-u	umlaut
^	alt-i	caret
ø	alt-0	crossed out o
π	alt-p	PI symbol
“	alt-[	right double quote
‘	alt-]	right single quote
#	alt-#	hash

asdfgh row

Character	Keys	For
å	alt-a	a with circle
ß	alt-s	beta symbol
∂	alt-d	delta symbol
ƒ	alt-f	function symbol
©	alt-g	Copyright symbol
˙	alt-h	high dot
∆	alt-j	capital delta
˚	alt-k	high circle
¬	alt-l	maths not sign
…	alt-;	ellipsis
æ	alt-‘	ae diaresis

Use alt-shift-key to have more fun
e.g. alt-shift-k gives 

zxcvbn row

Ω≈ç√∫~µ≤≥÷

Character	Keys	For
	alt-	back tick
Ω	alt-z	omega symbol
≈	alt-x	approximately equal
ç	alt-c	c cedilla
√	alt-v	maths root
∫	alt-b	maths sum
~	alt-n	not symbol
µ	alt-m	mu symbol
≤	alt-<	less than or equal
≥	alt->	greater than or equal
÷	alt-/	division sign

Cursor movement

And once you’ve found the right keys to press, moving the cursor around in the content is a lot easier than attempting to position the cursor by pointing.

Keys	Movement
alt-→	word right
alt-←	word left
ctrl-uparrow;	start
ctrl-downarrow;	end

Quiz of the year – 1969

A quiz I created for a 50th wedding anniversary.

The Questions

Ray-and-Marjorie-22-Aug-1969-quiz Download

Experiences with my Inateck BK2003 keyboard cover

My Logitech Ultrathin keyboard died a couple of weeks ago. I replaced it with an Inateck BK2003 keyboard cover – UK version. Now I’m using it to edit this post using the WordPress block editor. I’ve copied the original post about my experiences with the Logitech keyboard and am attempting to repeat the tests.

It’s been an interesting experience learning to use my new Logitech Ultrathin keyboard cover i5 to manage WordPress websites.