[sc:wordpress-category ]WordPress 3.7 was released a while ago and 3.8 is just about here, both provide significant, if differently focused, updates to how WordPress runs.
WordPress 3.7
3.7’s big new feature was automatic updates. I’ve been using the Automatic Updates plugin for quite a while and it’s nice to see it integrated in to the core. However there are a few things I have to scratch my head on:
- Why no user interface to control updates. The plugin had one, it seems an odd exclusion, especially since it just forced a dozen plugins to appear to take care of the issue.
- With the plugin, when an update was available it was pretty much immediately installed, the new core code seems to wait quite a long time before it installs it.
It would have been nice to have some advanced features for automatic updates built-in to core instead of relying on plugins.
WordPress 3.8
3.8 has some big changes to the admin UI and in general they look pretty good. I’m not a big fan of the included color scheme’s they have selected and again they seem to have left out any kind of editor to allow for custom theme’s, but it is a step forward.
This seems to be a common theme with the core, it tends to leave out some of the things that would make WordPress more user-friendly, preferring to leave that to plugins.
That may or may not be a good strategy, but when your primarily known as a publishing platform, it kind of seems to me to be important to keep your users in mind when adding new features.
