Devchat meeting summary: July 1st, 2020

@whyisjake led the chat for this agenda

Highlighted/Need Feedback Blogblog (versus network, site) Posts

A few blog posts and announcements were shared by @whyisjake

@azaozz recently published a plan to update the version of jQuery that is shipped with WordPress: ‬Updating jQuery version shipped with WordPress‬‬

@sergey‬ published this proposal last week to change some of the closure statuses in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.: Proposal: Rename “invalid”, “worksforme”, and “wontfix” ticket resolutions. ‪@sergey‬‪ shared that he is waiting on more feedback and will summarize this weekend or so.‬‬

@audrasjb recently published ‬WordPress 5.5: Better fine grained control of redirect_guess_404_permalink()

@desrosj recently published External Library updates in 5.5: call for testing

What’s new in 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/

@whyisjake noted the amazing new image editing capabilities (with gifs!) : What’s new in Gutenberg (24 June)

As a follow up, ‪@Andrei‬ posted the editor chat summary earlier today: Editor chat Summary: 1st July, 2020

@whyisjake pointed out that for anyone interested in contributing to closing some 5.5 tickets, ‪@ella‬ has a 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/ board tracking issues for the net release.

@desrosj wants help to test SimplePie and PHPMailer! All 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 authors that utilize these libraries should receive an email alert. The updates have been 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. for at least a few weeks now, and no issues have been found yet. @ipstenu has picked it up and just needs a clone.

Upcoming Releases

WordPress 5.5 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 is right around the corner: WordPress 5.5 Development Cycle @whyisjake noted that from this point on, no more commits for any new enhancements or feature requests in this release cycle, only 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. fixes and inline documentation. Work can continue on enhancements/feature requests not completed and committed by this point, and can be picked up for commit again at the start of the WordPress 5.6 development cycle.

Components Check-in and Status Updates

APAC Scrub @davidb‬‪ provided an update on the ‬APAC scrub last night. With Beta 1 approaching, the deadline for Feature Requestfeature request A feature request should generally begin the process in the ideas forum, on a mailing list, as a plugin, or brought to the attention of the core team, such as through scope meetings held for each major release. Unsolicited tickets of this variety are typically, therefore, discouraged. and Enhancementenhancement Enhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. type tickets is at that point.@audrasjb congratulated everyone on bringing the number down this past week. @whyisjake ‪asked what the process would look like between now and ~next Tuesday for these tickets? @davidb said ‬triaging while pinging owners/maintainers as much as possible for updates. Monday and Tuesday will probably see a lot of punting though, if these tickets don’t move between now and then‪. @whyisjake then asked if a ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. doesn’t see movement, do we normally move to Future Release or 5.6? @davidb said mostly Future Release with a comment that the owner/maintainer/committercommitter A developer with commit access. WordPress has five lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally, the project usually has a few guest or component committers - a developer receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed) and/or for a specific component. can update to the current milestone when they assume ownership to avoid the “kick the can down the road” issues of the past.@whyisjake gave major props to @davidb and everyone else that takes the time to keep the ticket garden tidy.‬‬

@francina mentioned that there has been a lot of discussion in 5.3 and 5.4 about what bug fixes can be fixed. Group asked if we should revisit or continue as we did until she finds the time to write the proposal?

@audrasjb noted that ‪#48751 was intentionally punted to 5.6 and not Future release and should be left in its current milestone‬‬

@marybaum team is on track to attach rough layout and copy for the About page to the ticket on track with Beta 1 and then commit by RC1, so polyglots can have the full period to translate. She gave props to ‪@estelaris‬, ‪@yvettesonneveld‬ and ‪@abhanonstopnewsuk‬ for art direction, help with the message brief and outreach to the marketing team.

@francina gently reminded all the component maintainers that we are 6 days away from Beta 1 and ask for help if needed.

@whyisjake provided a link for the list of components, with the maintainers: Component Pages – Make WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.

@whyisjake mentioned that WordPress 5.5 introduced a new sitemap component.

@Carike mentioned that there is still a significant difficulty that some components have a large number of maintainers, while only one is currently active. It prevents people from volunteering. @francina and ‪@yvettesonneveld‬ talked about the possibility of mentoring new contributors to avoid burnout.

@Carike mentioned that one couldn’t triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. tickets properly without maintainer status. @clorith said anyone can triage tickets, it’s also possible to have gardener capabilities without being a maintainer. @johnbillion seconded this and said maybe the status is not set on Trac @whyisjake posted the link to some docs around bug gardening: Bug Gardening @sergey also posted the link to a good overview for anyone interested in triaging/gardening @‬desros ‬has a new related post in his drafts and will try to wrap that up and get it published next week!‬

@audrasjb gave a few updates from the components he’s working on:

  • Everything is fine from Widgets and Menus components. The biggest remaining ticket is #48170 and it’s only waiting for review.
  • Everything is fine from Plugins and Themes auto-updates. We have few remaining tickets but no blockerblocker A bug which is so severe that it blocks a release..
  • From the 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) focus: we’ll start punting to Future soon. We still have two remaining bug scrubs to handle the remaining tickets.

New 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.-based menus page: @Andrei‬ and a bunch of other folks have been working on a new, block-based, menus page (nav-menus.php) and think it’s time to start syncing with everyone else on how things evolve. They will host a weekly chat in #core about the current evolution and state of the new navigation screen. The meeting will happen in #core every Wednesday, July 1, 2020, 12:00 AM PDT, starting next week, on Jul 8th. In general it will be a triage around issues in GitHub labeled with either [Feature] Navigation screen or [Block] Navigation but also completely open to exploring any subject around improving the navigation creation process in WordPress, increasing compatibility with the incoming FSE and also maintaining backwards compatibility.

@sabernhardt mentioned that #50120 could benefit from more attention

Open Floor

@Hareesh asked, with regards to ticket #50503 (linked #40039), if it is conventional to make such changes for all bundled themes all the way up to Twenty Ten? @williampatton @whyisjake @audrasjb agreed it was and @whyisjake said the team normally coordinates with ‪@ianbelanger‬ who pushes those same changes to the non-bundled versions that are the in the theme repo.

@enrico.sorcinelli raised ticket #21676, based on the analysis ‪@sergey‬ he thinks that is definitively the time to take a decision for this 8-year old ticket and long awaited simple feature. ‪@sergey‬ asked everyone to read the recent comments on the ticket and share their thoughts

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