Dev Chat summary: September 18

@francina was the chat leader. Archives for the chat can be found in #core 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/..

Announcements

@francina shared a devnote by AccessibilityAccessibility 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) team. We also had an update from @audrasjb from Accessibility team who said they are working on creating accessibility devnotesdev 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. for 5.3.

Upcoming Release Discussions

@ianbelanger gave an update of the work on default theme Twenty Twenty. A working version of the theme will be available on Monday for 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 of WordPress 5.3. The development of the theme is happening on GitHub and contributions are more than welcome on the repository or in #core-theme channel on Slack.

@audrasjb make an update for Accessibility focus for 5.3. He remembered that they have 2 dedicated scrubs per week and that the team is currently coordinating with the Design team to determine which changes will be included in 5.3.

@jorbin gave an update for PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 7.4 in WordPress. All the changes for the version are already landed in trunk. He also highlighted the great work of @desrosj and @jrf to make this possible. He finally announced the target is to fully support PHP 7.4 with WordPress 5.3.

@desrosj made a call for help for tickets in this report on WordPress TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.. People who own tickets in that report are invited to give them a status and to 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.) them if they feel that the tickets will not be ready for 5.3 release. Also owners who are not anymore available to continue working on their tickets are invited to remove themselves as owner and leave a status so that another contributors can take the relay.

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/. component maintainer @kadamwhite announce that the team is about to land a good set of enhancements before the Beta 1 deadline. Dev-notes for these changes will be published soon of Make/CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blogblog (versus network, site).

@garrett-eclipse from Privacy team announced that 4 privacy related enhancements have already been included for the release with no issues.

@antpb made an update for Media component, and remembered that the focus for the the release is around image handling and UIUI User interface improvement and accessibility issues. Tickets for the focus can be found on WordPress Trac here.

5.3 Marketing Lead @mikerbg announced that the marketing team is working to organize content for the about page and other assorted release announcements. Progress on their work is tracked here.

@davidbaumwald remembered that scrubs schedule for 5.3 can be found here and that @marybaum volunteered to lead the one of October 9. Scrubs take place on #core channel on Slack and anyone interested in welcome to participe or to run scrubs.

Calls from component maintainers

@kadamwhite said 5.3 is probably the best release for REST API improvements in a long while, and that the team is grateful for everybody who has contributed to the component.

Open floor

@ianbelanger said Twenty Twenty team have been discussing the idea of having a demo site for the theme asked if this is something that can be done, and what happened for previous default theme. @kraftbj volunteered to help on this.

@kadamwhite asked for another persons eyes on #42094.

@garrett-eclipse asked help for review from available committers on #37782 before Monday.

@audrasjb pointed out #46312, a candidate for an easy commit action.

@hareesh-pillai asked for movements on https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4706 as it is a blockerblocker A bug which is so severe that it blocks a release. on #22994.

#5-3, #dev-chat, #summary