JavaScript Chat Summary for June 20th

Below is a summary of the discussion from today’s 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/. chat (agenda, Slack transcript):

WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe Summary

• Contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. drew 500 attendees and included two JavaScript-focused sessions
• Sessions overflowing-packed, indicating huge and growing interest in using JavaScript in WordPress
• Anyone involved in JavaScript is encouraged to consider giving a WordCamp talk to share your experience
• During community summit, recap of framework discussion and review of recent coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. chats
• Notes from Community Summit will be posted soon, including a decision surrounding the recent framework selection discussions and the rationale leading to it

Increasing JavaScript contributions in core

• Observed very small number of contributors
• Introduction of a new #core-js 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 toward goal of engaging new contributors looking to become involved in WordPress JavaScript (link to 300 open tickets)
• Question: What factors increase developer involvement and how can we increase involvement?
• Contributor experience: Workflow of using TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. and exchanging patches not welcoming to new generation of (JavaScript) developers using GitGit Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. https://git-scm.com/. and 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/
• Gutenberg as as an example of a WordPress project being built in GitHub, easy way to become involved
• Previous efforts relating to GitHub pull request integration with Trac (#34694, rmccue/github-to-patch)
• Increase involvement by sharing generic modules in a WordPress modules monorepo, drawing awareness from developers engaging in these ecosystems (npm, etc)
• In-progress side project from @atimmer to parse and publish documentation to DevHub using documentation.js
• Lack of documentation cited as pain point for new contributors. Should improve overview-type developer guides for using and extending core JavaScript.
• New contributors would like quick start tasks to work on. “Good First Bugs / Tasks” exist in Gutenberg and in Trac (filtered to JavaScript focus)
• Contributions are slow to be reviewed or committed, perhaps discouraging new contributors
• Yoast has started efforts to improve documentation for media library. We might consider moving these discussions into Trac to surface and organize them as core issues.
• Is WordPress’s image in JavaScript communities as “old” (or otherwise undesirable) as being a deterrent? Possible solutions: Blogging about innovations, sharing useful utilities in broader JavaScript community, evolving foundation for JavaScript with efforts like GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/, highlighting JavaScript improvements in release notes
• New contributors might consider simply reviewing existing tickets, testing whether they’re still valid, taking screenshots, and commenting

Administrative

• Weekly meeting agendas will become more minimal over time with focuses on 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. scrubs and deciding larger item tickets (dates, hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same., etc)

#javascript, #summary