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Comment by dvh | Hacker News Reader

What always bugged me about WordPress is that default installation which has only 7 tables uses 3 different column naming conventions (table.ID, table.table_id, table.table_ID) plus sometimes it uses full table prefix and sometimes shortened prefix. Are you not bothered by it? This is the first thing new user sees. This was years ago I had to check again as I'm not using it and default installation is now 12 tables but the random column naming is still there.

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> This is the first thing new user sees.

The vast majority of WordPress users, and even many people who call themselves "WordPress developers" never look inside the database. WordPress is, in almost every way, a terrible platform to develop on. What saves it is backwards compatibility, an enormous ecosystem, and being relatively easy to use for everybody who needs to use it.

Backwards compatibility is more important than consistent naming conventions. 43.5% of all sites on the web run on WordPress (as of August 2024), and they have 20+ years of plugins and themes installed, many of which talk directly to the database.

Inconsistent naming is one of a million things that will drive you crazy about WordPress if you are a detail-oriented person. It's a living demonstration of "Worse is better."

When does a new user look at Wordpress’ tables? I’ve been using it for my site for like a decade and I only ever have to look in the database when I’m doing really complicated hacks, or something broke.

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