Dev Chat Summary: October 3rd (5.0 Week 1)

This post summarizes the dev chat meeting from October 3rd (agenda, Slack archive).

5.0 planning

• See @matt‘s post on plan for 5.0 and leads across the critical focuses involved in the release
  
• See also @youknowriad‘s post on the technical overview of Gutenberg integration for specifics on how 5.0 could progress
• See also @pento‘s post on the proposed release schedule
  • Current release date is November 19th, could be pushed as late as November 27th if needed.  If more time is needed, then we’ll move the release to January 22, 2019.
• @pento: intention is to have 5.0 out (including some small fixes to ensure compatibility) before PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher 7.3 is released. If 5.0 delays significantly, then there will be a 4.9.9 release with just the PHP 7.3 compatibility fixes.
• @joen: fast approaching UIUI User interface freeze, likely by 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). if not by 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 (October 19th), though bugs and testing feedback might force us to have to make changes
• @matveb: feature freeze during betas, towards end of the month, based on work remaining in Make/Core update
• Twenty Nineteen theme will be included in 5.0 with discussions in #core-themes, though the 5.0 release won’t be delayed if the theme evolves slowly, development will take place on 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/ with @kjellr publishing a post on the topic shortly
  
• @laurelfulford creating TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets for bundled theme updates
• @chanthaboune still following up with component teams to discuss concerns on shift from 4.9.9 to 5.0
• @pento still working to determine the 5.0 release branchbranch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch". in SVNSVN Subversion, the popular version control system (VCS) by the Apache project, used by WordPress to manage changes to its codebase., likely not viable to work from trunk for 5.0, may branch 5.0 from 4.9 and work there, a Make/CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. post will come once that’s determined
• @matt: open to having 5.0.x releases that are like the 4.9.x releases that bring in some larger updates or improvements we push off (e.g., servehappy the WordPress PHP education initiative)
  
• @youknowriad: will continue updating 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/ documentation in the plugin (they’re markdown files) while making it clear in the Handbook which version you’re looking at:
  • Is it the integrated version into Core (the default)
  • Is it the handbook for the updates coming to Core (the current version in 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)
  • A version selector could also be integrated
    
• @lonelyvegan: list of documentation issues noted in GitHub repo
• @matveb: note plan to reorganize handbook to give more visibility to vision/guidelines
• @danielbachhuber: collecting REST API-related issues for 5.0, any help on them would be greatly appreciated
• @jorbin: 400+ open tickets in the 5.0 milestone needing 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. scrub
• Help appreciated on tickets labeled as Needs Testing or Needs Technical Feedback
• @desrosj: can help write 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. needed
  
• @joemcgill: ideally Gutenberg goes through feature merge process to ensure security/a11yAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility)/etc. reviews
  • @chanthaboune: will coordinate across teams on these topics
  • @lonelyvegan: opened GB#10318 for a11y audit and blogblog (versus network, site) post

Updates from focus leads and component maintainers

• The PHP team shared notes from last week’s meeting including the Update PHP page and WSOD protection. You can catch them again next week on Monday, October 8th at 15:00 UTC in #core-php.
• @kadamwhite: thanks to @schlessera for 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. on #41305 to help properly localize the front-end using REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/., otherwise this is ready for testing
• @aduth: no 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/. meeting this week, but we will resume Tuesday in #core-js (see agenda in our previous week’s recap), suggestions for topics welcome!
• The Editor team will continue using the #core-editor channel and weekly meetings at the same time on Wednesdays to continue progress on Gutenberg tasks

General announcements

• @joemcgill: suggestion to hold off on changes to devchat schedule (based on @psykro‘s alternate devchat proposal) until after 5.0 release cycle
  

Next meeting

The next meeting will take place on October 10, 2018 at 20:00 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. Please feel free to drop in with any updates or questions. If you have items to discuss but cannot make the meeting, please leave a comment on this post so that we can take them into account.

#5-0, #core, #dev-chat, #summary