WordPress, as a platform, has been around for quite some time, and its development practices have evolved over the years. One of the reasons WordPress doesn't use Composer as its primary package manager is historical.
WordPress started as a simple blogging platform in 2003, long before Composer became popular in the PHP ecosystem. As it grew, backward compatibility became a significant concern. Introducing a new dependency manager would require significant changes to the existing ecosystem, plugins, themes, and custom codebases.
Additionally, WordPress has its own plugin and theme repository, which doesn't align perfectly with Composer's model of package management. WordPress plugins and themes are often designed to be standalone entities that can be easily installed and activated through the WordPress admin dashboard. Composer, on the other hand, is more focused on managing PHP dependencies at the code level.
However, it's worth noting that while WordPress core doesn't use Composer as its primary package manager, many developers within the WordPress ecosystem do utilize Composer for managing dependencies within their plugins, themes, or custom projects. This allows them to take advantage of modern PHP development practices while still integrating with the broader WordPress ecosystem.
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