Communication

WordPress TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.: This is our 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. tracker and project management tool, where the code happens. We track bugs, enhancements, and tasks here. SVNSVN Subversion, the popular version control system (VCS) by the Apache project, used by WordPress to manage changes to its codebase. actions are deeply integrated into Trac, including creating patches, and commits by coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. developers. Trac is for discussing code. Philosophical issues and questions over implementation of a potential future feature do not belong on Trac. Trac is located at https://core.trac.wordpress.org/.

WordPress SVN and GitGit Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. https://git-scm.com/.: The Subversion code repository is where the code “lives”, and is located at https://develop.svn.wordpress.org/. There is also a Git mirror available at git://develop.git.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org//. This is the core development repository. After a build process, commits to “develop” are synced to the traditional “core” repository, located at https://core.svn.wordpress.org/ (git://core.git.wordpress.org).

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/.: The #core channel on wordpress.slack.com is our place for real-time discussion. It primarily serves as the venue for our weekly developer meeting, but is also a general discussion channel for WordPress core development. Slack has replaced IRCIRC Internet Relay Chat, a network where users can have conversations online. IRC channels are used widely by open source projects, and by WordPress. The primary WordPress channels are #wordpress and #wordpress-dev, on irc.freenode.net. as our primary public communication channel. To learn how to join Slack with your free WordPress.org user account, visit chat.wordpress.org. The channel is open to anyone with a WordPress.org account, but the majority of chatter, especially during our weekly project meeting, comes from core contributorsCore Contributors Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac. https://core.trac.wordpress.org.. Often, a conversation for a Trac ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. will be pulled into Slack, with the consensus later posted to the ticket. Bugs and questions of implementation will often be hashed out in Slack before ending up on Trac. Many contributors idle here. The channel is logged and searchable. You can connect to the channel through the fully-featured web app, a native Mac app, and iOS and Android apps. There are also dozens more channels on the WordPress Slack organization, in addition to #core.

WordPress Blogblog (versus network, site): The WordPress Blog is a source of official announcements and news for the users of WordPress. The core team uses this blog to announce releases and initiatives. The blog feed appears in the dashboard of WordPress installs. The WordPress blog is located at https://wordpress.org/news/.

Development Blog (make/core): Sometimes referred to as “wpdevelwpdevel Formerly the development updates P2 blog at wpdevel.wordpress.com. It is now make/core and resides at make.wordpress.org/core.” for its original location of http://wpdevel.wordpress.com/, the make/core blog leverages P2P2 A free theme for WordPress, known for front-end posting, used by WordPress for development updates and project management. See our main development blog and other workgroup blogs. for conversation and announcements that are not code (this is Trac), real time (this is IRC), or appeal to the user base (main blog). Located on the make.wordpress.org networknetwork (versus site, blog) as make.wordpress.org/core/, along with several other blogs:

  • make/accessibility: The blog for all things 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).
  • make/cli: The blog for the WP-CLIWP-CLI WP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is http://wp-cli.org/ https://make.wordpress.org/cli/ team, the command line interface to WordPress.
  • make/community: The blog for the team dedicated to growing and strengthening our contributor community.
  • make/docs: The blog for the documentation team.
  • make/meta: The blog for the developers of the WordPress.org website.
  • make/mobile: The blog for all things mobile (iOSiOS The operating system used on iPhones and iPads./Android).
  • make/performance: The blog for all things performance-related.
  • make/plugins: The blog for 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 developers.
  • make/polyglots: The blog for translators.
  • make/support: The blog for the support team (forums, IRC, etc).
  • make/systems: The blog for those working on the WordPress.org site and infrastructure.
  • make/themes: The blog for the theme review team.
  • make/training: The blog for the WordPress Training contributor sub-group, part of Make/Community.
  • make/ui: The blog for the UIUI User interface team. Much of the UI work is done under the umbrella of core, but make/ui is used for discussion of user testing and design issues.

Mailing Lists: WordPress leverages numerous mailing lists like most open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. projects, but as a secondary tool. Patches are posted to Trac, rather than to any mailing list, and discussions on the mailing lists are often better suited in another venue. For example, wp-hackers was used for core development discussions years ago, but now these discussions will occur in IRC, on Trac, and on make/core. The list currently has a rather poor signal/noise ratio, but is still a source of good information and discussion when other venues might not be ideal. Additional mailing list information is available on the WordPress.org Codex.

There are some important mailing lists for those who wish to follow core development:

  • wp-svn: An announcement list of every commit to the WordPress codebase, which includes both the commit message and the actual patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. of changes. Volume: There were more than 4,500 changes to WordPress in 2010, an average of about 10-15 per day. This fluctuates wildly depending on the phase of the development cycle, from 50 or more in a busy day to only a handful during a slow week.
  • wp-trac: An announcement list of every comment to Trac. Truly the WordPress firehose, there were more than 20,000 comments posted to Trac in 2010.
  • wp-testers: A mailing list for developers testing the current alpha, 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., or release candidaterelease 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). of WordPress. This list is typically dormant until the first beta release. Closely watched by core developers, this is a great way for developers to post questions or potential issues that can then be addressed by those familiar with the codebase and the changes that went into each release. The list has seen a decline in traffic over the years, with more individuals opting for the Alpha/Beta support forum or Trac.

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