> How many of those are actually developers? Because the way I understand this > numbers, "powering the web", that doesn't mean 34% are also developers. It > wouldn't surprise me if a big portion of these applications could've also be > a system written in another language, deployed, plugins installed, added some > themes and done, no PHP knowledge required.
Most WordPress users are *not* programmers. Which is why introducing breaking changes to PHP will potentially affect them so negatively; because they have no programmers on staff nor any skill to fix the problem. Which means they will have to hire expensive programmers — like me!!! — to fix a problem that from their perspective they do not understand nor will even recognize a benefit when the code is "fixed." Again, I am just presenting this perspective on this list. Those who vote on this list will decide if breaking WordPress end-user's site bothers them or not. -Mike P.S. I am writing during a break at a WordPress conference, ironically.
