Here I am using the plugin to write this post. Woah dude… meta! For those in WordPress circles, there is a new WP editor doing the rounds and it is feature codename is Gutenberg. For those not in the know, the "editor" is the web-based User Interface inside WordPress admin, it is the area where posts are created, edited and produced.
Gutenberg is currently delivered in plugin form, meaning that it hasn't yet made it into WordPress Core. The plugin completely changes the edit view from the previous when working on posts & pages. While writing this post and getting to grips using the new UI, the main point of difference of Gutenberg that it feels very "modular".
Getting custom
The killer feature in Gutenberg I would argue is the custom block type. This enables developers to create custom editable & repeatable regions within a post or page. This is getting close to the core feature-set provided by the popular ACF plugin which is very popular with developers.
The whole idea of custom blocks is that they are simple for non-developer WordPress users to edit and update, without having to change code.
The future of WordPress
This represents a paradigm shift from being a blogging platform to a fully featured CMS. I have seen swathes of developers ditch WordPress in the last few years in favor of things like Craft & Kirby which help to fill the feature void of crap free HTML/CSS/JS with some an easy, repeatable, custom fields.
I think WordPress has a long way to go to be seen as a technically bleeding edge, as opposed to just being popular. New developments like Gutenberg are definitely a step in the right direction.
