Dev Chat Agenda, January 16, 2024

The next WordPress Developers Chat will take place on Wednesday January 17, 2024 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel on Make WordPress Slack.

Dev Chat evolving

Using the weekly curated agenda post for live and asynchronous usage, this meeting will begin an experiment to dedicate time to current proposals in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and to help specifically with progressing releases.

  • Through the summaries of the discussions and 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/. links, those unable to join live, will continue to be able to read and contribute asynchronously.
  • The links in the various agenda sections below will not be shared in full in the meeting, but be available for pre and post-reading. Anything for particular discussion can still be highlighted.
  • If you have ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. requests for help, please do continue to post details in the comments section at the end of this post.

Discussions

These are some of the current proposals in core for awareness and which may be suitable for further discussion in Dev Chats.

  • Proposal: Default Theme Task Force for 2024
    •  This focuses on considering how the team approaches the maintenance of the default themes to make them easier to maintain, and more future-compatible. With the release of Twenty Twenty-Four, there are now 14 default themes maintained by the project.
  • Proposal: improve the editor tech workflow for major releases
    • This proposal is focused on a workflow for merging 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/ into Core
    • This could be an ideal time to discuss to discuss and experiment based on 6.4 learnings for the benefit of 6.5.
    • As Dev Chat now has a combined input from the Gutenberg and Core meetings, there is opportunity for discussing this further during the meetings and for a deeper discussion on what could be done in 6.5.
  • Interactivity API and building interactive blocks has moved past the proposal stage and is aimed at being a key feature planned for 6.5. An update has been requested to share with Dev Chat.

Could you help curate a Call for Volunteers to review the open proposals on Make/Core and create a list of unresolved ones to discuss during Dev Chat meetings?

Announcements

6.4.3 – next maintenance release – the post includes the planned schedule, the dates of the 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. scrubs, and the final release date of 30 January 2024.

Highlighted posts for information

These will not be re-shared in full in the meeting itself to enable time for discussions in a new experimental approach to Dev Chat.

Dev Chat Summary from January 10, 2024.

New versions for the default themes for the Twenty Twenty-OneTwenty Twenty, and Twenty Seventeen are now available for download. 

A Year In Core: 2023 – just a few highlights from this detailed post. Props to @sabernhardt and @audrasjb.

  • In 2023, the WordPress Core team shipped 2211 commits (2597 in 2022). 2751 tickets were opened, 2545 tickets were closed, and 365 were reopened.
  • Also, 1079 people contributed to WordPress source code using TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. (988 in 2022), and 472 people made their very first contribution to WordPress Core (398 in 2022).

A Week in Core – January 15, 2024 – props to @audrasjb. On Trac, between January 8 and January 15, 2024:

  • 37 commits
  • 64 contributors
  • 51 tickets created
  • 6 tickets reopened
  • 58 tickets closed
  • 8 new contributors to core!

Team reps update. The nomination period has been extended for the Core Team Reps 2024 edition to January 31, 2024 at 23:59 UTC . Full details are on the original nominations post where nominations can be added.

Call for mentors/ mentees for Contributor Mentorship program’s second cohort – deadline for applications, February 12, 2024

The Feature Projects page has had an update and worth checking out for the latest statuses. Feature Projects are intended to concentrate a group of people together, to explore potential ideas for WordPress Core.

Data Liberation in 2024 

What’s new for developers? (January 2024) on the Dev Blogblog (versus network, site).

Core-editor updates

Thanks to @annezazu.

For information

  • New tracking issue: Section Styling, Colorways, and Typesets for WP 6.5.
  • Font Library: biggest work for now is the Font Library: refactor REST API which needs feedback. Please help review if you have experience with the 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/..
  • Pattern overrides: work is ready to test starting with making paragraph blocks overrideable. Up next, headings, buttons and images are expected to be added soon as blocks that can have overrides.
  • Navigation: customize the navigation overlay with a template part, enabling a separate menu experience for mobile, has been punted from 6.5 by contributors.
  • Design tools: PR merged to add backgroundSize feature with implicit repeating backgrounds to add more functionality to the Group 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.’s background image support that was added in 6.4. Needs PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher backports.
  • Data Views: Templates is now stabilized with Pages, Patterns, and additional views in Templates added in as experimental. Questions around extensibility came up recently — extensibility is very much part of the plan with the focus currently being on stabilizing the base APIs.
  • Add appearance tools support for classic themes: this work has been completed and merged into Core trunk. This opens a world of design options that, up until this point, have been only available with Block Themes, or themes using theme.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML..
  • Interactivity APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.work continues for a public launch with 6.5 including a recently merged PR to render the root interactive blocks in Server Directives Processing.
  • Block bindings API: block bindings prototype is being split into smaller PRs to move work forward in smaller chunks with the PR that sets the basis for the API recently merged (this doesn’t add a UIUI User interface to create the bindings).

New (thanks to @bph)

Releases

Next major releasemajor release A release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.5

Please also view the updates relating to 6.5 related updates under the core-editor heading above.

A release squad announcement is expected shortly.
Next milestone: 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 Feb 13, 2024.

New links on 6.5 since last week:

Recording of hallway hangout: Let’s explore 6.5

Early opportunities to test WordPress 6.5

Note update on the Font Library API design proposal with a particular note for REST API folks to view as per this comment. The navigation overlay has been punted from the 6.5 roadmap by the contributors working on this feature.

Any other updates on the Font Library?

Could you help with running a bug scrub around a particular area, component, or towards 6.5? More information on running scrubs. More dates for 6.5 bug scrubs will also be added once a squad is in place.

Existing 6.5 links

Next minor releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality.: 6.4.3

  • As shared above in Highlighted Posts, the next maintenance release will be 6.4.3.
  • Milestone: RC1 January 25, 2024
  • Release slated for: January 30, 2024
  • Bug scrubs and more information is in the link above.
  • 6.4-release-leads channel on Slack

Gutenberg releases

17.5 can be downloaded from the Gutenberg plugins page.

Update: A “What’s new in Gutenberg 17.5” has been published – thanks @scruffian and everyone who worked on 17.5.

Tickets to highlight for assistance

Priority will be given to tickets relating to 6.5.

Open floor

You can post suggestions in the comments box. Please indicate if you are intending to be at the meeting for any queries.

Thanks to @hellofromtonya for discussion on the core proposals lists and @annezazu for sharing the core-editor updates.


#agenda, #core, #dev-chat