Please Integrate the Classic Editor as a Permanent Option in Core

  • Bryan Hadaway

    (@bhadaway)


    3 years, 4 months ago

    Despite the fact that the new block editor has come a long way, and is way better than earlier versions, I still just don’t see any reason to use it. Personally, for my own workflow and writing style, it only hurts usability and productivity for me.

    Clearly, millions of others feel the same way.

    I don’t think it has to be one or the other though. The impending doom of there being a clock on the Classic Editor plugin clearly isn’t a good idea, because the goal posts just keep moving on that.

    If the plugin needs to be retired at some point, alright, but why not simply integrate it into core as a permanent setting in the admin, under Settings > Writing and let people decide which editor they’d like to use?

    I understand that that could increase development time to have to support two editors and that for other reasons, philosophical reasons perhaps, you simply want people to adopt and invest in the new editor, but it’s pretty obvious at this point that it’s just not going to happen; the people have spoken.

    If you retire this plugin and you don’t add core support, people will just switch to:

    https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-gutenberg/

    But, I’d feel more confident, warm, and fuzzy, to have continued official support of the original editor, FOREVER! 💙

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • TopDog52

    (@topdog52)

    3 years, 4 months ago

    I second Bryan’s idea wholeheartedly. We’re not all full time developers and having this option makes life easier.

    Thread Starter Bryan Hadaway

    (@bhadaway)

    3 years, 4 months ago

    Ironically, it’s because I’m a developer AND because I’m familiar with page builders, that I don’t prefer the new editor.

    Look, the new editor is cool and it has its use for those that like it, but there will always be just as many that like the old editor for their own reasons too.

    Minimalism never goes out of style. For me, having just a plain old HTML box (like the very box I’m typing in now for this topic reply) for my editor, will always be ideal.

    I know that the new editor has its own HTML editor as well that’s been greatly improved, I just have no reason to switch over. The editor I’m using now is perfect and I have no complaints about it, so why fix what isn’t broken?

    I know that a lot of core developers and people in the official team are betting that it’s simply a matter of people hating change and that eventually everyone will come around and adopt the new editor, but what they failed to understand a year or so ago, but are probably finally realizing now, is that for many of us, that’s not what’s happening; we just objectively find the old editor better and simply aren’t going to use the new one.

    But, I’m not here to say abandon the new editor and all the hard work that’s gone into it; that would be insane and selfish. I’m just saying we need to find a compromise, where both options are officially supported, forever.

    AlexWebLab

    (@infoalexweblabcom)

    3 years, 4 months ago

    Totally agreed. I don’t want to switch to ClassicPress. I love WordPress but I wish I can choose to keep the classic editor without installing an additional plugin.

    ispreview

    (@ispreview)

    3 years, 4 months ago

    Agreed here too. Gutenberg doesn’t work for me, I’m a professional writer and work in code, the Classic Editor suits all my needs.

    thinkwired

    (@thinkwired)

    3 years, 4 months ago

    +1

    Ironically, it’s because I’m a developer AND because I’m familiar with page builders, that I don’t prefer the new editor.

    Iamhere

    (@iamhere)

    3 years, 4 months ago

    I still don’t see the point of Gutenberg… except as some vanity project for Matt.

    Classic Editor should be the core.

    Thread Starter Bryan Hadaway

    (@bhadaway)

    3 years, 4 months ago

    @iamhere That seems a bit harsh.

    I think the goal is always to make WordPress easier to build with.

    To me, the new editor is about integrating bells and whistles from popular editors like Medium and the Divi and Elementor page builders, to bring the WP editor into the modern era.

    I think they simply underestimated how many MILLIONS of people actually prefer a very simple editor.

    Thomas Schmall

    (@oxpal)

    3 years, 3 months ago

    I don’t even see how it’s easier. It has tons of buttons – half of them are hidden somewhere in a complex of sub- and side-menus. The html is less readable. And everything needs more clicks.
    Besides that it’s still buggy for me. Overall it’s still a catastrophe.

    But for all I see, now the classic one is broken because it uses outdated jQuery… so I might be forced to step over … and somehow deal with the resulting headache.

    fselmani

    (@fselmani)

    3 years, 3 months ago

    +1

    Just look how many sites have installed classic editor plugin and you will realize that classic editor should integrated in core is a must ! 🙂

    squarecandy

    (@squarecandy)

    3 years, 2 months ago

    +1 – yes please.

    It’s also I think fine to keep it as a plugin that is supported by the @wordpressdotorg team and Automattic indefinitely.

    Has anyone here heard any updates on an official EOL for this plugin?
    This post from November 2018 has some old and somewhat contradictory info in it:

    Classic Editor Plugin Support Window

    First it says…

    The Classic Editor plugin will be officially supported until December 31, 2021.

    … indicating that it will hit EOL Jan 1 2022. But then it also says…

    In 2021 we will evaluate continuing maintenance of the plugin, based on usage. We expect continued maintenance to be fairly trivial.

    Anyone heard anything official on the matter? Huge decisions about our entire fleet of custom websites is on the line, and I’m sure many of you are in the same boat. All of the options if official Classic Editor support gets dropped seem equally bad: Convert Everything to Gutenberg; Be responsible for maintaining Classic Editor by ourselves; Move to something like ClassicPress; Have outdated insecure plugins. #4 breaks our contract with our clients and 1-3 all involve massive amounts of time/labor.

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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