Dev Chat Summary, April 20th 2016

This post summarizes the dev chat meeting from April 20.

Update on WordPress 4.5.1

  • #36510 and #36545 are large bugs that are prompting an earlier release than was anticipated.
  • #36510: a ‘singular’ class was added for singular items, but some existing themes -including Twentyeleven – already used ‘singular’ in a different way leading to unexpected result.
  • #36545: is a potentially bad TinyMCE bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. with chrome vs. 50 (now stable) is fixed in TinyMCE upstream; although testers have been unable to reproduce this bug, the point upgrade MCE squashes some known bugs and seems worthwhile to include.

Other items remaining

  • #26506: Press This: “Add Photos” box doesn’t have enough height
  • #36578: wp_ajax_send_attachment_to_editor() bug

Discussion about release date

Several people raised concerns about rushing out an early point releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality.. In an effort to encourage testing before release, 4.5.1-RCrelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). will be tagged either today or tomorrow (April 20th, 2016 or April 21st, 2016). A make/coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. post about changes in 4.5.1 will also be posted.

Announcements

  • All committers will have their commit access renewed.
  • @voldemortensen will be the release deputy for 4.6.
  • @ebinnion, @rockwell15, and @grantpalin will continue their superb Week in Core posts.
  • WordPress 4.6 will focus on fixing bugs and refining existing features.
  • Other goals include increasing collaboration between features/components, increasing communication via make/core, and give user testing and UXUX User experience a bigger focus.

Release Schedule

  • Target release date is August 16, 2016. As a reminder, deadlines are not arbitrary.
  • Full release schedule can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/core/version-4-6-project-schedule/
  • It was proposed that the Major ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. report has zero tickets at BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 4 instead of RC to avoid last minute rushing.

Community Wish List

  • @helen gave an update on feature projects (https://make.wordpress.org/core/features/). Feature projects have a bi-weekly meeting (every two weeks) at variable times to allow more contributors to attend. Next meeting is on May 3, 15:00 UTC in the #core SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel. More feature projects will be added to the page as their statements of purpose are refined.
  • @ocean90 and @voldemortensen will be tracking the wish list of tickets for 4.6 and providing updates here: https://make.wordpress.org/core/4-6/. (Component maintainers can help up by updating the list as well.)

Component Maintainers

  • Just a reminder to component maintainers, write more posts on make/core to improve communication. Don’t forget to post on weekly meetings either. There is a handbook post on writing make/core updates. https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/best-practices/post-comment-guidelines/
  • If you would like to volunteer to be a component maintainer, please reach out to @ocean90 or @jorbin.

General Discussion

  • The Two-Factor feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. needs a UX designer. Please reach out to @georgestephanis directly or in #core-passwords on Slack if interested.
  • #34941 (Make the main bootstrap process in ms-settings.php testable) needs some eyes. Please leave comments on the ticket or in #core-multisite if you have questions, comments, or concerns.
  • PHPMailer has decided to drop support for anything lower than PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 5.5. Security updates will be backported, but there will be no new feature development. Reference.

Full meeting logs: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/core/p1461182382001002

#4-5-1, #4-6, #dev-chat, #summary