Development of the next version of wordpress (version 2.8) is underway. A post on the official wordpress blog reports that there are around 500 active tickets with problems that need to be addressed. In particular, one problem has remained unaddressed since wordpress version 1.5. In any case, wordpress developers desire that programming-talented members of the community write a patch addressing an issue of their own choosing.
To keep things moving, we’re announcing a new kind of event, related to bug hunts, but with a different slant. We need a sprint to clear out these tickets. Thursday is the day (and Friday for those over the date line). Core devs will spend 24 hours going through all the tickets tagged with has-patch, and committing those that have been tested and work.
On December 24, 2008, the official wordpress blog solicited feedback from the community regarding Prioritizing Features for WordPress 2.8. A survery (already closed) was used to gather information from wordpress users about which features they would like to see improved, revised, scrapped, or introduced.
mySQL performance tuning recommendation
For my part, I believe that mySQL database coding optimization and overall wordpress speed ought to be issues addressed immediately. I made the recommendation to consult with the folks at the MySQL Performance Blog in order to identify and to optimize inefficient wordpress mySQL queries in addition to tweaking the general database structure and coding. I made another post in the Wordpress Ideas section pertaining to wordpress speed and wordpress database coding that offered points of contrast between wordpress, which uses mySQL, and popular forum softwares, which also use mySQL.
I think Wordpress speed might be related to the coding of their database system.
Compare the speed of a forum (SMF, vBulletin, myBB, phpBB) with 10,000 posts to a Wordpress Blog site with 10,000 posts, and you’ll see that WP struggles while the forums do not.
This points to an underlying inefficiency with the WP coding that comes to the fore when a WP site grows.
And finally, on the last page of the Wordpress Ideas section, I reiterate a former point (and I realize that I’m beginning to sound like a broken record):
I think that team members of WP need to consult with the people at http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/ . Once a fee has been determined from the consultation firm, WP can setup a donations page and tell us, “If you want to see these improvements, then you need to donate to the performance fund.”
If there’s a way to speed up mySQL, these people will find it. They did it for vBulletin, and they could do it for WP.
I, for one, would happily donate some money to see this happen.
Final thoughts
And now, the question remains: Will the next version of wordpress be faster in terms of page rendering speed than the current version? Will the next version of wordpress use fewer and more efficient mySQL queries when accessing the database?
Update
The 24-hour has-patch marathon has just officially begun! For the next 24 hours (until Friday, 4pm UTC), the core developers will be evaluating patches that have been tested and committing those that are good. When they run out of those, they’ll start testing patches that have been submitted but not tested. This takes longer, so help us keep the momentum going by testing patches today.
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One of the reasons we have so many tickets is because one of our main developers has spent the bulk of the time between 2.7 and now working on improving performance/speed in the admin interface, and as a result, yes, 2.8 is faster.
Thank you for taking the time to comment here, Jane.
Improving performance and speed is always a positive thing, and I believe that no one will disagree with that… I cannot imagine a single blog owner who would desire to have a slower and a more sluggish wordpress-driven site.
Unless the infrastructure team at Wordpress knows that their database coding is 100% top-notch and efficient, I would recommend that the developers at Wordpress consult with those at Percona in order to find areas of improvement. Drupal is listed as one of their customers, and the team has been known to optimize queries in vBulletin as well.
I’m willing to bet that more performance can be squeezed from Wordpress’s coding.
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