Title: Custom theme, life expectancy
Last modified: October 9, 2023

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# Custom theme, life expectancy

 *  [Birgit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/birgit/)
 * (@birgit)
 * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-theme-life-expectancy/)
 * I built a custom theme back in… probably 2010-ish. It’s using calls like
   get_header();
   get_footer();and
 *     ```wp-block-code
           <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
               <div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
       ```
   
 * The only custom function in function.php is a register_sidebar call.
 * My question is: is it possible to predict for how much longer this theme will
   continue to work? Are the examples given still WP core snippets, and for how 
   long will they continue to be so? (I no longer work in web design, and have become
   lazy – I only ever use a framework like Divi when I’m occasionally building sites
   nowadays…)
 * And yes, the client should have their site reworked – for responsiveness, for
   one! – but lack of funding has put this off.
 * Thank you in advance for your advice!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [Alan Fuller](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanfuller/)
 * (@alanfuller)
 * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-theme-life-expectancy/#post-17111497)
 * Generally WordPress tries to be backward compatible and generally has been successful
   at it.
   What breaks most sites with old code is PHP updates ( e.g. change PHP 
   5.4 to PHP 8.2 ) and some PHP updates are definitely not backwards compatible.
   But in reality it is like to me small work to fix any issues.I still have working
   custom themes from 2011ish ( based in WP 2011 theme )
    -  This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by [Alan Fuller](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanfuller/).
    -  This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by [Alan Fuller](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanfuller/).
 *  Thread Starter [Birgit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/birgit/)
 * (@birgit)
 * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-theme-life-expectancy/#post-17111637)
 * Thank you. 🙂

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Custom theme, life expectancy’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [custom theme](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-theme/)
 * [PHP compatibility](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/php-compatibility/)

 * In: [Everything else WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/miscellaneous/)
 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Birgit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/birgit/)
 * Last activity: [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-theme-life-expectancy/#post-17111637)
 * Status: not resolved

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