Dev Chat Summary: May 31st (4.8 week 5)

This post summarizes the dev chat meeting from May 31st (agenda, Slack archive).

4.8 Timing

• Beta 1 went out on Friday, May 12th; Beta 2 went out on Monday, May 22nd; RC1 went out on Thursday, May 25th
• RC2 is scheduled for Thursday, June 1st
• With RC2 we’re aiming for a hard string freeze so that translators can complete all the new strings in 4.8
• Should things continue to go to plan, 4.8 release would be next Thursday, June 8th

4.8 Bug Scrub

• Currently at 4 tickets in the milestone, goal is to get to 0 by RC2
• #39822 has ongoing commits to improve Build/Test Tools in relationship to PHPUnit 6
• #40893 is a 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. that used to be caused by themes, but now there is a notice in the UIUI User interface about it [Note: since committed and closed]
• The TinyMCE-extended Text widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. provides a suboptimal UX for users who have been accustomed to pasting in 3rd-party JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. code (widgets) into the Text widget
  • Relates to #2833
  • Considerations considered include code, documentation, and/or UI updates to improve the UXUX User experience
  • Suboptimal UX includes three separate but related issues:
    • 1) Extra whitespace from content pasted in
    • 2) HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. being encoded after it is pasted in
    • 3) line breaks in JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. causing the JS to break due to new <p>
  • #1 & 2 are likely best solved with documentation and some outreach
  • #3 appears to be the most severe, but also the biggest edge case
  • Proposal:
    • 1) In the very short term, create documentation to help 3rd parties (e.g. MailChimp, Infusionsoft) and utilize people with a wide and respected reach to do some outreach with that documentation
    • 2) For 4.8.0, don’t make any code related changes
    • 3) Continue looking into this and exploring what we could change for 4.8.1
  • Note the TinyMCE Text Widget post has been amended to note the need to remove extraneous line breaks, especially when pasting in script snippets
  • If you’re able to help with documentation or outreach on this, please call out in #core.
• #40865 has patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing., needs review for commit in 4.8/puntpunt Contributors sometimes use the verb "punt" when talking about a ticket. This means it is being pushed out to a future release. This typically occurs for lower priority tickets near the end of the release cycle that don't "make the cut." In this is colloquial usage of the word, it means to delay or equivocate. (It also describes a play in American football where a team essentially passes up on an opportunity, hoping to put themselves in a better position later to try again.) to 4.8.1
• #40721 committing final strings tonight, only hours remain for feedback

4.8 Dev Notesdev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. / Field GuideField guide The field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the WordPress release cycle. The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page.

• Many thanks to all writing, reviewing, and otherwise contributing to getting all the dev notes published recently!
• Also 🙌 to @pbiron & @desrosj for their help getting the field guide published alongside RC1

Other News

• For the Editor, check out their latest update on Gutenberg and note their GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ repo now updates to #core-editor. Feedback on both those is appreciated.
• JS group continues to make progress, see their latest update for specific details
• Please read the Community Conduct Project proposal

#4-8, #dev-chat, #summary