The notes from the weekly WordPress developers chat which took place on November 1, 2023 at 20:00 UTCin the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.
Key Links
Announcements
WordPress 6.4 Release Candidate 3 was released just before Dev Chat – please help test and make the release the best it can be. All details are on the post. Thanks to everyone who contributed towards this.
Reminder: Dev Chat continues at 20:00 UTC throughout the year and does not change with daylight saving changes.
Highlighted Posts
A recording of the Hallway hangout on performance improvements in WordPress 6.4 is now available. The main points are also summarized on the post for anyone not able to access the recording.
Call for 6.4x release managers – this followed a discussion in Dev Chat last week. Please add a comment to the post if you are interested in supporting the maintenance and minor releases. Thanks to @jorbin for putting this together.
Reminder: Call for contributors to assist with 6.4 End User documentation. Extra assistance will be appreciated to help with this as we move towards the release day.
What’s new in Gutenberg 16.9.
Release Updates
Next major WordPress release: 6.4
Release candidates and rest of the cycle
RC3 was the last scheduled 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)..
@hellofromtonya explained that another RC 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). could possibly happen in the following circumstances. If a regression A software bug that breaks or degrades something that previously worked. Regressions are often treated as critical bugs or blockers. Recent regressions may be given higher priorities. A "3.6 regression" would be a bug in 3.6 that worked as intended in 3.5.(s) gets reported and resolved, then yes, another might happen. But currently all regressions are resolved and shipped in RC3!
Next week’s schedule:
- Dry Run – on Nov 6, 2023.
- 24 hour code freeze starts after the Dry Run.
- 6.4.0 release party starts on Nov 7, 2023 after the 24 hour code freeze expires.
Any issues relating to 6.4?
No other issues were raised during the meeting.
Relevant 6.4 links
No new links were published at the time of the meeting.
Field Guide for 6.4
@webcommsat: In addition to 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., you can also find all Developer Notes relating to 6.4 using this tag. If you think a change would benefit from an additional 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., please add it to the Documentation Tracker for 6.4. You can also tag 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.) one of the docs release co-leads in a message in core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. if you want to discuss the possibility of an additional dev note and do not have access to the tracker.
Release parties schedule for 6.4
6.4 Release Candidates phase
This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.4.
Roadmap to 6.4 – this release is scheduled for November 7, 2023.
6.4 Development Cycle
Future releases: 6.5
Timings and squad
- @joemcgill followed up the question at last week’s dev chat on the formation of a release squad for 6.5.
- @chanthaboune is thinking through the timing of releases across the year, and therefore there is no clear date for the first release of 2024 as yet. She hopes to bring a draft of suggested dates/ times by Monday November 6, 2023. This is the ‘only blocker A bug which is so severe that it blocks a release.’ for a call for volunteers. One person has contacted Josepha so far to participate in 6.5.
- General agreement in the meeting for early planning for the next release.
- the discussion on Slack.
Triage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. tickets for 6.5
- @oglekler requested triages to start as soon as possible, as 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. is already open and 6.5 Alpha has begun. She raised a call for volunteers.
- discussion followed on updating the core handbook to reflect that triages and bug 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 can be held at any time, and to clarify that any contributors wanting to run a scrub did not need to wait for a completed release cycle or for a squad to be formed. The possibility of a post highlighting and calling for volunteers was suggested for the future.
- a number of experienced core developers are able to buddy or give advice to help anyone less familiar with running scrubs.
- if you can volunteer to run a scrub, you can share details in a future dev chat or comment on the summary post, and also post the information in the Core Slack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel ahead of time to best ensure that others are aware and can gather to help at the scrub. The core triage lead or the Core Team Reps can also update the bug scrub post in Make/Core.
- if you are wanting to run a scrub related to particular component(s), please contact the component maintainers who can help and share information on priority tickets or planned scrubs.
The full discussion on triaging and bug scrubs.
Tickets or components help requests
No tickets were mentioned in the meeting.
Open floor
Reminders for the following were brought up right before the meeting ended:
Call for contributors to assist with 6.4 End User documentation. Volunteers can also post in this thread from the meeting.
Call for 6.4x release managers
Next meeting
The next meeting will be on Wednesday November 8, 2023, at 20:00 UTC.
After Dev Chat posts for attention:
Hallway Hangout: Issues Triage Extending Gutenberg – note this will take place on November 10, 2023 at 16:00 UTC.
Are you interested in helping draft Dev Chat summaries? Volunteer at the start of the next meeting on the #core Slack channel or contact one of the Core Team reps.
Props to @zunaid321 for contribution to the notes, and to @marybaum for review.
#6-4, #6-5, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary
