A completely plaintext WordPress Theme
This is a silly idea. But it works. I saw Dan Q wondering about plaintext WordPress themes - so I made one.
This is what this blog looks like using it:

The Code
You only need two files. An index.php
and a style.css
. The CSS file can be empty, but it needs to exist - otherwise WordPress won't let you activate the theme.
The index file displays the requested post, or front page, in plain text. It isn't the most sophisticated code I've ever written!
PHP
header('Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8');
bloginfo( 'name' );
echo "\n\n";
if ( have_posts() ) {
while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
if ( get_post_type() == 'post' ) {
the_time( get_option( 'date_format' ) );
echo "\n";
}
the_title();
echo "\n";
echo strip_tags( apply_filters( 'the_content', get_the_content() ) );
echo "\n\n\n";
endwhile;
}
Obviously, there are no links - so you can't navigate. There are no images - but there's also no alt text. There are no embeds, scripts, styles, or other fancy things. Just plain text.
Enjoy!
Andy Hawthorne criticised a new website owner for not using a popular CMS, arguing that this would necessarily impact their SEO and so invalidate the point of their website (that point being, Andy presupposes, to attract views). I dispute... almost every single part of that argument.
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