@francina led off a well-attended dev chat – 29 active participants! – with the standard introduction and remarked that we were in Week Nine of the release cycle.
Announcements and Highlighted Posts
She issued a call for announcements and highlighted posts, then announced that WordPress 5.3 Release 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). 1 had landed the day before, on October 16.
@azaozz and @sergey were our packagers; @francina and @desrosj led the process.
Dev Notes 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.
@johnbillion called the group’s attention to a crop of new dev notes as a way to keep up with changes in 5.3 for devs; @justinahinon linked to the 5.3-specific ones here.
@jeffpaul added that pending one more dev 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., the Field 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. will publish shortly.
Accessibility 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) testing in the 5.3 Admin (and super admin)
@francina directed the group to this report from @audrasjb on accessibility testing of the CSS changes coming to 5.3 against the 20 most popular plugins on the WordPress.org repository.
@francina thanked @jeffpaul for the Field Guide and @ipstenu for plugin 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 support.
Upcoming Releases
5.3
@francina‘s call for updates prompted mostly murmurings that everything’s progressing on schedule. @azaozz pointed out there were only a couple of new tickets after RC1, and @desrosj had three to call out for reviews from other committers: #48022, #48312, #47699.
(Remember that after RC1, every commit needs signoff from two committers, not one, until launch.)
Discussion of a related ticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker., #48331, followed.
Calls from Component Maintainers
@francina opened the calls from component maintainers.
@jeffpaul: Not a component maintainer update, but worth noting that during the RC1 packaging process (I believe) we confirmed that trunk 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. would be opened back up after RC2. That may be worth confirming here and noting in the devchat summary post which you’re reading now)
@sergey and your faithful but tardy reporter confirmed that we’ll start milestoning for 5.4 at that point, and @desrosj pointed the group to the RC1 discussion here.
The final announcement from @davidbaumwald was this:
@committers Committing to Core is now open again. Reminder, now that we’re in RC, the dev-feedback and dev-reviewed workflow is required prior to committing, where each commit must get double-signoff.
@desrosj pointed out that 5.4 already has 94 tickets. He encouraged the group and observers (and you, dear reader!) to address these 94 tickets first or punt 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’re unrealistic.
Open Floor
@francina had two items.
RC2
RC2 is tomorrow, October 22. @francina asked the group for a team and a timeline; discussion followed about some last-minute changes that we won’t be making tomorrow.
Workflow for the About Page
@francina also opened the floor to a discussion about whether or not the About Page can get locked down 24 hours before a release. For the most part, the group agreed that much of the page can, but there will always be a few last-minute fixes — especially for majors.
See you tomorrow for the launch of RC2!
#5-3, #core, #dev-chat, #summary
