Docs Chat: Feb. 20, 2014

Thank you to everyone who came. For anyone unable to attend, you can read the logs here.

The following is a summary of the topics that were discussed.

1. DevHub: Progress continues. Most of the template work for the code reference is done for the moment. @Rarst now has commit access to the parser repo, and will be working on changes needed for parsing the inline docs. @nlarnold1 is working on resolving issues with the handbook theme.

2. Docs Issue Tracker: @samuelsidler said we should have an initial version soon.

3. AH-O2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/.: Per @jazzs3quence, @brainfork will be working on redoing the help overviews due to a display issue. Work continues on adding tooltips. Version 0.6 was released Thursday – please test and provide feedback to the team. (2/17/2014 team meeting summary)

4. Docs Project Landing Pages: Landing pages were created for the Codex, DevHub, and Handbooks projects. The Code Reference falls under DevHub, and will be included there. @siobhan will be adding information to the DevHub landing page, and @hanni will be populating the Handbooks landing page.

I’ll be pulling together a to-do list of outstanding Codex tasks to include in the Codex section. We also need to look at putting together a list of Codex updates needed for the 3.9 release in mid-April.

5. Handbooks: @hanni posted the detailed plans for the Handbooks project this week.

There is now a weekly IRC chat for the Handbooks team – Thursday at 1:00 UTC (5pm PST, 6pm MST, 8pm EST on Wednesday) in #wordpress-sfd. The team held their first meeting on 2/19/2014.

@blobaugh is the new editor of the PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party Developer Handbook, and is working with @hanni on a revised outline. There are also several new contributors eager to get started writing.

@sewmyheadon is the editor of the Theme Developer Handbook, and will be working with new contributors @philiparthurmoore and @nudge to move that handbook toward completion.

More contributors are needed for the Theme Developer Handbook, so if you are interested in helping, contact @sewmyheadon or @hanni via IRC, attend the weekly meeting on Wednesdays, or leave a comment on this post.

#chat-recap

Samuel Wood (Otto) 11:41 pm on February 22, 2014

I will try my best to have the issue tracker up and functional tomorrow (barring hangover), but I warn you, it’s pretty ugly right now. 🙂

Fact is that I am no designer. I have no sense of visual aesthetic. Sorry. I just write code.

So if anybody with design skills wants to help me out over the next few days, it will be most appreciated. I’ll have it up and running and partially functional (but missing key usability things at first, so don’t actually try to use it or anything), and I can share the URLs with people wanting to help me fix my horrific failures at CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. work.

Just let me know.
lorax 2:02 pm on February 24, 2014

I’m not sure where to post a question about getting involved so I’ll start here. I’ve looked over the handbook spreadsheet and see a couple of items that haven’t been claimed but I am not familiar with them. I know I could learn them but that seems a monumental task given the pace at which these documents need to be put together. But I’m willing to dig in if I can tap someone to help me with understanding of the item.

One thing I’ve noticed is there are assumptions made by the team that the general public may not know. Example, where to post a question about getting involved? I know there are several different avenues to reach a person but it’s not clear which is the preferred method. I believe the community is conscious and appreciative of the effort the team puts into making WordPress better and they don’t want to intrude on the team’s time by posting in the wrong place. I know I don’t. A suggested path is always a good idea. If it’s in the documentation somewhere then I apologize – but it’s not intuitive where to find it.

Another option for me is to review what’s been written from an end user’s point of view. Again, as an outsider, I’m not sure when I can edit something or not and what the review process is. It’s fine to ask for the community’s help but there should be a clear process for their involvement and clear milestones to get them started. Otherwise we’re in danger of floundering and becoming discouraged. I have the power to edit but I’m not sure if I should.

I know the team is very busy and I apologize if I sound critical. I’m tentative because I don’t want to waste your time.
- Sam Sidler 5:41 pm on February 25, 2014
  
  Hello! Thanks for your questions.
  
  There’s a couple there and I’ll try to answer them both. First off, don’t worry about sounding critical! Asking questions and leaving comments is a great way to help the team overall.
  
  On the handbooks specifically, you should join the weekly handbook chat. They’re currently organizing a bit and should have specific tasks you can help with soon. (New spreadsheets are coming!)
  
  As far as getting involved is concerned… The team is working on their documentation handbook now, including pages for each project and how to get involved with it. That’s one of the things mentioned on this update. We still need to more work there, but it’s coming. If you have specific suggestions, we’d love to hear them! As the pages are created for each project, definitely leave comments with suggestions to improve them and what kind of involvement paths/processes you think would work. We’re open to all kinds of ways to get involved, though are partial to things like IRC and P2s (surprise!) than other methods (like email).
  
  I hope that answers your question. Feel free to pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” me here (just type @samuelsidler in any comment you leave) or find me on IRC (sams) if you have more questions or if I can help in any way. 🙂
  - lorax 12:43 am on February 26, 2014
    
    Hi Sam (@samuelsidler),
    Thanks for the reply! I appreciate the helpful post. I’d love to get 5 minutes with you on IRC sometime to short cut the Q&A process.
    - hanni 5:48 am on March 1, 2014
      
      @lorax considering your recent experience; do you have any feedback on the Getting Started page for the handbooks?
      - lorax 8:05 pm on March 1, 2014
        
        Hi Hanni, I’m getting oriented with the handbooks now. What I find confusing is there seem to be two goals at the moment. 1) to create documents for developers to use and 2) provide avenues for the community to get involved and help support the documentation effort – eg. editing and upkeep of the handbooks etc.
        
        The home page of Docs is the most logical place to establish this. The current welcome is “Welcome to the official blog for the WordPress documentation team.” But the nav hierarchy shows Home Handbooks Codex Inline Docs & DevHub – clearly not just a blog to the average user.
        
        Perhaps the home page for Docs could be broken up into 3 distinct sections. 1) welcome – intro to Docs (what they are and why they exist, 2) Developer resources (handbooks, codex, Inline Docs, DevHub), and 3) Getting Involved (what this means, where to go to learn more and get started). In this structure, the blog would include categories that help separate the content by focus (theme hand book, pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party handbook, for example).

Want to get involved?

Weekly meetings

Docs Chat: Feb. 20, 2014

Want to get involved?

Weekly meetings

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