Friday April 10, 2026; 12:17 PM EDT
The perfect app for an AI to do for you is a demo app. Yesterday I wrote about making WordPress boom with new apps for writers that run in the web ecosystem, not as plug-ins, in JS running in the browser, or on the desktop, any desktop, that would work too. Probably would be fine to put an MCP shell around it so it can be in AI-internal scripts. #- I'm into writing tools. Proud of it. I'm a writer and a developer. Did I become a developer to create tools for writers or the other way around? At this point the answer to both questions is yes. #
- I'm basically offering to host a potluck party where people bring an app that works alongside WordLand but works differently from WordLand. Mine is a simple wizzy editor with a Markdown flip-switch. But everyone likes a different kind of editor. There is no single best editor for the web and since WordPress is of the web that applies here too. #
- If this work is ragingly successful it should have the adoption of XML-RPC in 1998, where devs were competing to get support for their favorite platform before all the others. Here's the list as of 2003. It was exciting and fun, kind of like how things are now. #
- So back to the AI connection. I started a session with Claude this morning and asked it to look at wpEditorDemo. Let's write a developer's guide and an AI guide, I said to my AI friend. This was a direction Don Park, a very longtime human friend suggested. #
- Claude and I spent the remaining time this morning creating a Gutenberg editor that works alongside WordLand. The two apps share files through the wpIdentity server that connects to WordPress. #
- So you can edit the text with either or both editors. If you use both you'll have to stick to Markdown. But you could use the Gutenberg editor for documents or sites where Gutenberg is better or required. This is so key. The document is yours to do with as you please. It's the web way for text to work. No lock-in. So important because almost everywhere else on what remains of the web, the ability to write and publish comes with a cost: lock-in. That's why writing on the web sucks so much. #
- I know Matt thinks open source is everything and that always bothered me a little. #
- I loved that the NYT came on board with RSS 2.0 in 2002 that made it grow like a weed in all the right places, but it wasn't open source, though they didn't hide the source. They made an incredible contribution to the web which is largely unsung. #
- Same with NPR and podcasting. It never would have booted up as fast or well and stayed open on the web without the help of WGBH and Tony Kahn. Again, not open source. #
- What you do need are partners who let people bring their text any way they want and don't make people type it into their defective editors, which deliberately constrain you -- to their shitty little silo. #
- To my WordPress friends -- WordLand is not seeking to replace Gutenberg, it just wants a place alongside it. And to open the doors for a myriad different approaches to writing on the web, all working beautifully with WordPress. #
- This should blow open the doors of the writer's ecosystem of the web, adding a whole new level, like adding air travel alongside trains and cars. And it should show how inadequate the current best writing environments are. #
- We'll have the Gutenberg editor for you to try out along with developer docs later today or tomorrow, Murphy-willing. #
- All made possible by WordPress and Claude.ai. What a time we live in! All of a sudden the web works again even if people have lost hope, because the AIs do the work either way. ;-)#
- Update: Here's a screen shot of the Gutenberg demo app.#
