Dev chat summary: May 19, 2021

@peterwilsoncc and @jeffpaul led the two chats–05:00 and 20:00 UTC—on this agenda.

Featured blogblog (versus network, site) posts

A Week in Core comes from @audrasjb and recognizes 90 contributors, of whom 18 were new last week.

What’s new in Gutenberg? Find out from @vdwijngaert.

An update on the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. editor from @itsjusteileen talks about that team’s monthly priorities:

  • Global Styles
  • Navigation
  • Widgets Screen
  • FSE
  • Mobile Projects

@francina reports on the Upgrade/Install meeting from Tuesday, May 18.

@desrosj took to the News blog to announce that Core is dropping support for IE11 in 5.8, what that means and how it will affect themes.

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) team has a proposal for updating TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. workflow keywords. They’d like another round of review, according to @joedolson’s post.

And finally, @mattchowning posted an apology for any consequences folks have suffered as a result of Gutenberg’s dual-licensing issues. In the 20:00 UTC meeting, @jeffpaul also blamed himself and other folx for the project’s overall approach to getting consent. Jeff recommends that if you’d like to discuss the situation further, please comment on the post respectfully and professionally.

Posts that need feedback

Jeff highlighted @andraganescu‘s post asking for help testing the Widgets editor and asked everyone involved with Core (ed. note: including you, dear reader) to 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. out some time to do that.

@drewwestcott and @daisyo shared some feedback on the instructions, and @webcommsat reported that Marketing is encouraging Meetups to promote the tests.

Next release: 5.8

Both facilitators issued a reminder: Feature Freeze is now five days away, on May 25, according to the full schedule.

In the 20:00 chat, @desrosj flagged that the 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/ feature freeze is today, May 20, with RC1.

At that point, @jeffpaul pause[d] for what will feel like an uncomfortable amount of time to allow for calls for help…

@clorith pointed out that his component, Site Health, has a number of tickets marked ‘Good First Bug’ that could land in 5.8, if new contributors want to pick them up. Since he was mobile during the meeting, @desrosj compiled this list.

Other tickets mentioned:

#53212, from @pbiron, which @davidbaumwald said he’d review this week.

From @mte90: #44098, #15145, and #17025. @audrasjb said he owes @mte90 some feedback on those tickets, and @francina indicated she has an interest in the outcome.

Component maintainers

@jeffpaul moved the chat on to ask component maintainers to share plans and needs for help for 5.8.

@sergeybiryukov reported several items.

Plugins: Core finally supports the Update URI 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 headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes., so third-party plugins no longer risk getting overwritten by an update of a similarly named plugin from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory. See changeset [50921] and ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #32101 for more details.

General: `wp-config-sample.php` has some new language that makes it clear that custom values should go in specific places, not just at the end of the file. Details are in #37199.

@desrosj brought in an update from @youknowriad on Core-editor.

@antpb reported on some meeting-time changes for Media.

@chanthaboune: Marketing is switching from pre-merge to post-merge, pre-release work—that means boosting the signal for testing features and the 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., and building general awareness of FSE.

@audrasjb on Menus: Still planning to ship #21603 before feature freeze. On (Classic) Widgets: no major news.

@milana_cap on Docs: Starting collaboration with Docs team, especially with @bph for Block Editor user docs, and to get every handbook ready before release. She has also started populating the spreadsheet for tickets that need 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..

@sabernhardt shared that the Toolbars component has two tickets in the milestone: #28569 and #26933.

Open Floor

@jeffpaul led off Open Floor with two 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. announcements:

1) WordCamp Northeast Ohio Region is this weekend.

2) WordCamp Europe tickets are going fast; register for your FREE ticket now. 

@clorith announced the Support team is looking for another deputy or two. Their workload has been growing over the years, and it’s more than what one rep can comfortably do these days. And, he pointed out, it’s a great opportunity to get involved without writing code. Details are here.

#5-8, #core, #dev-chat, #meetings, #summary