William Earnhardt 11:29 am on April 11, 2019
Tags: 5.2 ( 37 ), dev chat ( 714 ), summary ( 819 )

Dev Chat Summary: April 10

Announcements

Five days left to submit a talk for 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. US at WordCamp US 2019

5.2 updates

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. 3 is Thursday, April 11th; target release is April 30, so focus is on final pushes.

Bug Scrubs

There are two planned 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 prior to RC1. Check the post here for the schedule.

5.2 Bug Scrubs for RC 1

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.

Deadline for dev notes is this Friday, April 12.

Two were published on Make/Core; two more went up to Make/Themes but consensus was to move to Make/Core after some discussion. Three to four more are in the pipeline for Friday. A post on the new Site Health tool from @clorith will also get the dev-notes tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.).

@earnjam noted the choices for what needs notes are coming from this Trac list and this Gutenberg list.

All 5.2 dev notes will go in the 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., which will go live with the 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). on April 17.

@jeffpaul has volunteered to help with the Field Guide.

Per the notes @williampatton wrote for Make/Themes: @chanthaboune clarified that she thought the best plan was to move all dev notes to Make/CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. to keep them all together and ensure broader reach.

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//editor

Deadline for Gutenberg changes to make 5.2 is also Friday, April 12. This is limited to bug fixes only.

Open Floor

Visibility of Dev Notes

@xkon started a discussion on the best way to surface dev notes for easiest access. He and other folks are now looking for All The Links and will comment on this post with their findings.

From there we’ll revisit the issue and use it to inform any changes to Make/Core and what we put on a proposed Core Contributor Handbook page.

WP Translationtranslation The process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization. Day

@jeffpaul noted we’re just about a month out from WP Translation Day on May 11.

WCEU

@milana_cap put out a request for someone to lead the Core PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher team at WCEU 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/..

Important dates

@chanthaboune closed with a list:

April 11 – WordPress 5.2 Beta 3 + soft string freeze
April 12 – Dev notes deadline
April 15 – WCUS Speaker application deadline
April 15 – Gutenberg 5.5 RC
April 17 – Gutenberg 5.5 Final
April 17 – WordPress 5.2 RC1 + hard string freeze (edited)

Props to @marybaum for writing this summary.

#5-2, #dev-chat, #summary

Milana Cap 11:37 am on April 11, 2019

Thank you @earnjam for including WCEU call in notes.

We will open WCEU 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/. registration on Monday and it would be great to have all confirmed teams before that. Not having CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher at Contributor Day doesn’t sound quite right.

Just a little correction: zzap on 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/. is @milana_cap on wp.org 🙂
- William Earnhardt 11:42 am on April 11, 2019
  
  Sorry about that! I’ve corrected the @ mention
  - Milana Cap 2:07 pm on April 11, 2019
    
    Thank you.
Konstantinos Xenos 2:37 pm on April 11, 2019

Hey all! Replying here regarding the discussion that we had for 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.. So we can see what we could possibly change ( this might apply to more tagged content here and not only dev-notes by the way 🙂 ).

I’ve made a little “experiment” and asked various friends from my local community over our 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/. to try and find the Dev Notes for the current release etc.

Out of the 5 people that participated, none of them managed to find any dev notes. Some linked to TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress., some linked to previous Release documentation etc, but none was able to actually pin point where the Dev Notes are “hidden”.

The issue at the moment as I see it:
Everything goes on Make CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. ( summaries, dev notes, scrubs etc ). That’s fine and it’s expected but there are some things that we might want to consider not only for Dev Notes but in general as well.

Since everything is just “tagged” the only quick distinction between posts themselves are the titles. We have i.e. “5.2 Bug Scrubs”, “X Chat Summary” so on so forth. Dev Notes on the other hand ( at least the ones that I could see ) just have a title without saying “Dev Notes” i.e. “The BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor 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/. module in 5.2” so there’s no quick way to understand what’s that about.

Some solutions that could be considered:
A Tag Cloud on the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. ( if that’s possible ).

Linking from either the menu to Dev Notes ( https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/dev-notes/ ) or an extra mention with a link on the Welcome! part of the page

And overall standardizing the titles a bit with a quick prefix of “Dev Notes:” for example if that would be acceptable just in case someone casually scrolls through all of the posts.

—
I’d love to hear more thoughts on this so we can try and find a way to have more content available for people that are not that familiar on getting around these parts of wp.org.
- William Earnhardt 2:47 pm on April 11, 2019
  
  I like the idea of standardizing titles. It would make identifying posts quicker and easier.
  
  I think we could do more to highlight the current release in the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. and what that really means (next upcoming release). Possibly adding more information directly there, instead of only having it on the release page.
  
  When I think about the goal/target for 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., it’s essentially to help out a developer asking “What is coming in the next release that I need to be aware of?” Putting links to them on the page for the next release makes sense in that context, but if the page for the next release is difficult to find, then maybe that’s not that helpful.
  
  It might make sense to clearly group the types of content and link directly to those groupings/categories. I can think of 4 offhand (there may be more): Agendas, Summaries, Dev Notes, Announcements.
  
  I also noticed while working on these dev notes that we have some inconsistent applications of tags/categories on past posts. Could be good to do some cleanup there and either add some documentation on the right terms to add, or possibly even explore some pre-publish checks to ensure proper term application.
  - Konstantinos Xenos 10:11 pm on April 12, 2019
    
    You are absolutely right, making the upcoming release more prominent somehow will be great as well and if that’s tackled properly then everything else might not be needed also to be honest. On a further note about this I think it’s also kind of confusing as well that the title on sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. is “Current Release” but the subtext and link refers to the “upcoming/next release” that is currently under dev.
marybaum 2:59 pm on April 11, 2019

Do we maybe want to make it clear that Summaries are of the chats? Maybe call them Chats?

Or if we have summaries of more than the chats, we could make that distinction: Chat Summaries, Something Else Summaries, A Third Thing Summaries?
- Josepha 9:41 pm on April 17, 2019
  
  Hey Mary, I might not understand the question here. The title and tags both specify that this is for dev chat. Perhaps you’re looking at a more internal mention — could you draw my attention to it?