Dev Chat Summary: September 6th (4.9 week 6)

This post summarizes the dev chat meeting from September 6th (agenda, Slack archive).

4.9 schedule review

• 3 weeks until the feature project merge deadline, 4 weeks until 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. 1
• CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. improvements for merging Changeset drafting and scheduling has yet to kick off development, designs are nearing completion (see: #39896 and #28721)
• Gallery 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. is still under development but it seems to have stalled, TODO’s noted on related GitHub PR
  • @joemcgill to look into avoiding serializing attachments data in the widget this week
• @obenland working on wrestling the widget mapping issue when switching themes (see: #39693)
• Page on Front progressing slowly, likely not ready for dev before Feature Merge
• Theme switching issue for nav menu mapping has already been merged in trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. (see: #39692)
• CodeMirror feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. (aka Better Code Editing) needs testing and a few outstanding issues that would benefit from contributors. Plan is to merge this week.
• @psykro to look into #9757
• “Add Media” button in the Text widget great opportunity for new contributors
• #35827 could use an owner and remaining items in 4.9 Goals post could use contributors to help land in the release

Editor update

• 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/ updated to v1.1.0 and continued testing and help with GitHub issues are always welcomed!

Iterating in trunk

• @matt: I’m fine with more iteration happening in trunk vs how we’re bouncing patches around TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. so much
• @matt: I’m okay with parts of trunk being broken as we iterate in this phase of dev
• @desrosj: Do we have an established process for reverting things that break?
• @obenland: I think we’re not talking about “PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher fatals”-broken, but rather a feature maybe not fully functional

HTML5 input types for validation

• @afercia: any thoughts about relying on HTML5 input types browsers built-in validation only?
• @azaozz: used to be buggy, seems to be working properly now
• @afercia: seems to me still premature to rely on required for validation
• @afercia: looking to leads to make a decision as new browsers support policy
• @asaozz: Worth some testing, especially on the “lower end”, IE11
• @afercia: there are still CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. rules in ie.css for Internet Explorer 6 (and 7, and 8). Can they just be dropped?
• @azaozz: no need of ie.css in my honest opinion
• @azaozz: intention is not to completely break old browsers if they still work, but to stop testing in them
• @clorith: concerned about users locked into older browsers, like IE8, and keeping option for them to enqueue scripts relevant to their browser
• @afercia: I wanted to start the discussion about this as it relates to the new browsers support policy

General announcements

• @danieltj: looking to include #41704 and #41817 in 4.9, patches exists just need testing
• @danieltj: updated #35554 as seems worth including with 4.9, also needs testing
• @dougal: looking for dev-feedback or 2nd-opinion on #41746
  • @jbpaul17: may be worth teaming up with @danieltj on the oEmbed tickets
• @mte90: waiting on review of patches on #13377, #17019, #14148
  • @jbpaul17: will start 4.9 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 in a couple weeks, may get more focused response from people then

#4-9, #core, #dev-chat, #summary