Is Gutenberg Violating a Fundamental Principle of System Design?

Watch my video on how Gutenberg is violating a fundamental principle of system design.

The Gutenberg editor for WordPress seeks to combine two disciplines—content production and presentation—that have historically been separate for a very good reason.

That reason?

The separation of structure and style is a fundamental principle of system design.

Attempting to combine these two disciplines is guaranteed to create chaos in the long term because things are going to change over time.

For example, you’ll probably want to change your design at some point in the future. If your new Theme doesn’t handle all the Gutenberg content blocks your previous Theme handled, then your old pages will be compromised.

Even worse, two different Themes may handle the same content blocks in a way that is simply incompatible within the context of a particular design.

So what does this all mean?

It means you will be forced to go through and make manual edits to “fix” your old content whenever you make the fateful decision to change your design in the future.

I don’t know about you, but I hate creating future problems for myself. I want life to get easier, not more complicated or annoying.

With this in mind, let’s take a trip down the Gutenberg rabbit hole and see what that landscape is going to look like.

Did you know?

I make software you can use to run a blazing-fast website (like this one).

Check out the Focus WordPress Theme to see how you can run a fast website that delights your visitors, ranks like crazy, and is easy to manage.