Tag Archives: 6-6

Sarah Norris 4:24 pm on May 9, 2024
Tags: 6-6, , ,   

Summary, Dev Chat, May 8, 2024

Start of the meeting in 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/., facilitated by @joemcgill. 🔗 Agenda post.

Announcements

The WordPress 6.6 roadmap has been published.

WordPress 6.5.3 was released on Tuesday, May 7. This 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. features 12 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 in CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and 9 bug fixes for the 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. editor. You can review a summary of the maintenance updates in this release by reading the Release Candidate announcement.

Gutenberg 18.3 was released on Wednesday, May 8. The release highlights include a full page client-side navigation experiment, negative values for margin controls, and adding a publish flow to the editor.

Forthcoming Releases

We are currently in the WordPress 6.6 release cycle and 4 weeks away from 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. The latest update on the release squad is detailed in this post and there are a few TBD roles for Core triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. and Docs leads. During the meeting, @OGlekler volunteered to be Core Triage Lead for 6.6. @priethor also followed up with a note to say:

  • Would the Core Triage role benefit from a second lead?
  • The Docs lead role is nearly ready too.

@jorbin confirmed that 6.5.3 came out on May 7. Thank you to everyone who helped. We now need to consider whether we should plan a 6.5.4. As of now, there is one potential regressionregression 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. that is being investigated, so @jorbin suggested that we give it one to two weeks before making a decision. The 6.5.4 milestone has already been added in tracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress..

@annezazu noted that the only other feedback is around this: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/59511: There’s been some feedback from an enterprise client as they can no longer change titles easily. The problem is there’s not an intermediate solution in the works and it will be resolved by 6.6 when the site editor pattern experience comes to classic themes. This will be discussed further in #6-5-release-leads.

Discussion

Here are a couple of follow-ups from previous meetings:

  • New slack channels: #core-interactivity-api was created to help folks working there better organize and collaborate.
  • 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/ commits: as a way to bring additional visibility to changes committed in the Gutenberg repo, we’ve started an experiment to show commits to the 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. branchbranch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch". (PR merges) in the #core channel.

We dedicated a lot of discussion time to the 6.6 roadmap and any updates about the major efforts listed on the Roadmap.

@afragen gave an update about Rollback Auto-Update: there have been zero reported issues with the PR. We’re currently just looking at making some of the comments a bit more descriptive. Hopefully Rollback Auto-Update will be committed in the next day or so.

@johnbillion raised #61173: if anyone wants to help with that workflow that would be great.

Open Floor

@azaozz requested for “more eyes” and reviews on https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/6407#issuecomment-2101275000. This is a PR that properly fixes the infinite loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. as reported on #60652 (the current 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. just hides it, that PR removes the possibility for a loop to happen). It also fixes the possibility for a 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 to completely remove the new font_dir filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. which is a pretty nasty thing to do and would break all other plugins that are using that filter.

@kkmuffme requested some final reviews on the following PRs:

@grantmkin also noted: @vcanales and I have started exploring “canonical block plugins,” an idea to have more community developed blocks that are shipped as stand-alone block plugins, for blocks that aren’t a fit in the default block library shipped with Gutenberg/WordPress. The primary issue is at https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/58773, in case you’d like to learn more about, follow, discuss, or contribute to the effort. There will likely be a follow-up on make/core to get more feedback.

Note: Anyone reading this summary outside of the meeting, please drop a comment in the post summary, if you can/want to help with something.

Props to @joemcgill for proofreading.

#6-6, #core, #dev-chat, #summary

Sarah Norris 1:23 pm on May 2, 2024
Tags: 6-6, , ,   

Summary, Dev Chat, May 1, 2024

Start of the meeting in 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/., facilitated by @joemcgill. 🔗 Agenda post.

Announcements

The WordPress 6.5 retrospective survey is now closed. Thank you to everyone who responded! Expect a follow-up post with collected, anonymized results once @priethor, @marybaum, and @akshayar have finished processing all of the feedback.

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/ 18.2 was released on April 24. Read about what’s new in this release.

The remaining Phase 3 related overview issues were created for folks to join Phase 3: Block Library, Phase 3: Workflows, Phase 3: Revisions, and Phase 3: Collaboration index. Thanks to everyone who worked on creating and updating these Phase 3 issues!

Forthcoming Releases

We’re in the 6.6 release cycle. @annezazu shared that the roadmap draft is well underway, and @ella has already created this tracking issue to coordinate PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher backports.

@fabiankaegy noted that it is worth calling out that there are still a few roles that are looking for volunteers. @priethor added: in particular, the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. Lead role is the one with the most in need of volunteers. There are a few inexperienced volunteers for the docs lead role, but it would be great if somebody with experience in the role could participate, too. Please reach out to @priethor directly if you have any questions.

A quick update about the next maintenance release, WP 6.5.3. There are currently 3 open trac tickets and 1 Gutenberg ticket left to resolve. A 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). is planned for May 2 at 17:00 UTC, with a tentative release date planned for May 7. There is more information about this release in this post, including 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. scrub schedule and how you can get involved.

A quick reminder that our next Gutenberg release (18.3) is in progress and the Release Candidate is scheduled for May 2.

Discussion

We dedicated the discussion time to revisiting the conversation that was kicked off last week during our announcements related to recent #core-editor conversations about how we can improve how contributors follow along with editor updates and improve communication within the project.

To kick things off, @joemcgill shared some suggestions that @youknowriad posted on the agenda:

I know a lot of 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. follow core updates by following the commits that happen on the #core slack channel. I believe that we should be doing the same for editor commits. These commits are already shared on slack on #core-editor-commits channel. That would be IMO a great way for core contributors to keep up with what’s happening on the editor side and potentially interact (even on merged PRs like we do for closed tickets on tracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.) without waiting for the code to reach Core through backports or anything.

I think we can also consider showing these commits directly in the #core channel in Slack like we do for Core commits because in the end, these are core commits too, they just happen on another repository. Today we have between 10 and 20 commits per day, I think that’s an acceptable number that won’t “flood” the channel that much and would bring more visibility.

We discussed that we could experiment with posting commit summaries to the #core channel for a short period of time, such as a few weeks, and evaluate how it works. We also discussed that the commits from Core provide more detailed summaries compared to the commits to trunk on the Gutenberg repo, so this is a potential improvement for the Gutenberg commits. @audrasjb noted the Core handbook link for Commit message best practices.

@joemcgill said that he will follow up on moving this forward this week.

@azaozz noted:

There was another concern in that discussion: many contributors that cannot contribute very regularly are missing when development starts for (major) new features. That results in not being able to start contributing to them in time, or not providing timely feedback, ideas, being able to test different approaches, etc.
One of the ideas how to fix this was to start announcing when new major features development starts in dev. chat (and in the summaries). Seems most/nearly all contributors follow make/core and that would benefit them.

@priethor noted that Dev chat time is not very EU-friendly, asking folks to announce features here can be a big ask depending on the project.

@joemcgill summarised that there are several things to unpack here, primarily:

  1. How can we make it easier for people to contribute to new features
  2. What is the right timing and method for communicating updates at key milestones for a feature (e.g., merges, etc.)

@hellofromtonya suggested: How about a Make/Core post with links to tickets or project board and/or the key labels for tracking?

Open Floor

@afragen gave an update on the Merge Proposal: Rollback Auto-Update, and noted that we haven’t received any issues with testing so @afragen believes that it’s going well and we’re on our way to commit in a week or so. Also, there are 6000+ active users of the feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins.. Please read the proposal and test the feature plugin in the next week, ideally before the next dev chat.

#6-6, #dev-chat, #summary

Joe McGill 9:18 am on April 25, 2024
Tags: 6-6, ,   

Summary, Dev Chat, April 24, 2024

Start of the meeting in 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/., facilitated by @mikachan.
🔗 Agenda post

Announcements

An update for the 6.6 release squad has been posted, please note that the release squad is looking for one or two CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. Leads to focus on triaging TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. and a Documentation Lead with previous experience for the role.

Also, a reminder that the WordPress 6.5 retrospective post has been published, please fill in the survey if you would like to leave feedback or suggestions for improvements to the release process. The form and comments will be open until April 26th, 2024

There was also a recent discussion in the #core-editor channel around several topics linked to how we can improve how contributors follow along with editor updates and improve communication within the project. There were several potential actions discussed, including:

  • Create more high-level tracking issues that are not tied to a 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..
  • Create Slack channels for high-level features, such as navigation (#feature-website-navigation) and the grid 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. (#feature-grid).
  • Create teams on 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/ for high-level features to create an easy point-of-contact and discussion space for these features.

@annezazu called out that she did some recent work cleaning up 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/ repo, which should help with this, including getting high-level overview issues in place for all phase 3 items.

Tied to this, 6.6 is the start of having set iteration labeled issues that are targeted for the release and should make it easier to follow release-specific, in-progress work: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/labels/%5BType%5D%20Iteration

@jorbin suggested a make/core post outlining more specifics about the intended process for the iteration issues, to make sure things stay up to date.

@mikachan believes that a summary post is being written to help summarize the next steps from the discussion that happened over in #core-editor.

@johnbillion and @priethor both expressed concerns about potential siloing if we experiment with adding more feature channels.

Forthcoming releases

Next major release: 6.6

We are currently in the WordPress 6.6 release cycle.

Next maintenance release: 6.5.3

There are currently 15 open tickets in the 6.5.3 release milestone. There is more information about this release in this post, including 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. scrub schedule and how you can get involved.

@jorbin gave the following update:

6.5.3 is still on target for 7 May. Scrubs have been moving things forward. There are a couple of at risk tickets so if you see something towards the bottom of https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/minor/workflow, it would be good to jump in to help.

There are also a few tickets on GitHub so look towards the left there to see tickets you can help move forward https://github.com/orgs/WordPress/projects/186

Next Gutenberg release: 18.2

Gutenberg 18.2 is scheduled for April 24 and will include these issues. During the meeting, @colorful-tones asked for support with a problem encountered while publishing.

Discussion

@peterwilsoncc previously raised that we should consider syncing the editor packages earlier in the release cycle. Could this be attempted for 6.6? Slack reference.

  • This process is documented here, but @youknowriad warned that a lot of that work is also manual for the PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher part and not something that doesn’t have a clear workflow.
  • @johnbillion noted a related issue, #60967, which could help with this process.
  • @joemcgill suggested that we put some focus on reducing friction of the PHP syncing during this release and will follow up with @youknowriad and tech leads @ellatrix, @vcanales, and @audrasjb about some next steps.

@afragen published the Merge Proposal for Rollback Auto-Update and asked for more testing and feedback in order to commit this early during the cycle.

Highlighted posts

The full list of posts from the last week in Core can be read on the agenda at this link.

Open floor

There was no time for the open floor section during this dev chat, but @drivingralle did mention a potential ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. for 6.6 on the agenda post:

Would be great if ticket #55184 could be included in 6.6.

Props to @mikachan for reviewing.

#6-6, #dev-chat, #summary

Sarah Norris 3:59 pm on April 18, 2024
Tags: 6-6, ,   

Summary, Dev Chat, April 17, 2024

Start of the meeting in 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/., facilitated by @joemcgill.

Announcements

The WordPress 6.5 retrospective post has been published, please fill in the survey if you would like to leave feedback or suggestions for improvements to the release process.

Forthcoming 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.: 6.6

We are currently in the WordPress 6.6 release cycle. The deadline for leaving feedback on this Planning Proposal post has ended, and we expect a release squad to be announced soon. Please leave a comment if you have any updates to share about this.

Next maintenance release: 6.5.3

WordPress 6.5.3 will be the next maintenance release. @jorbin published this post outlining the schedule.

@jorbin shared:

Work on WordPress 6.5.3 is progressing. The target for release is 7 May and there are 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 happening twice a week.

Of the tickets I’ve reviewed so far, https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/60992 feels like the highest priority. It has a 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. on it that could use some extra testing.

For the full schedule of scrubs or if you aren’t a bug gardener and want to suggest a ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. for the milestone, see
https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/15/wordpress-6-5-3-an-upcoming-maintenance-release/

As with all minor releases, any and all help is appreciated.

Slack reference

@afragen confirmed that the expected behaviour of the patch for #60992 is: The patch for 60992 allows the redirect after the Activate button on the 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 card in plugin-install.php. There continues to be no redirect for the Activate button in any modal, ie “More Details” or “View details” modals.

@costdev confirmed that they’re confident we can land the resolution for 6.5.3.

Next 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/ release: 18.2

Gutenberg 18.2 is scheduled for April 24 and will include these issues.

Discussion

There were several proposed discussion topics for today:

  • How can we get PHP8 support completed and out of “compatible with exceptions”: suggested by @jorbin
  • Aligning the coding standards for CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and Gutenberg so that both can use the same tooling: also suggested by @jorbin
  • Revisit syncing editor packages early and throughout the release cycle: suggested by @jeffpaul

How can we get PHP8 support completed and out of “compatible with exceptions”

On the first topic, @jorbin noted that: PHP8 support feels to me like one of those things that is kind of stagnent and I would love to see some movement towards full and complete support for all PHP8 versions. I wanted to bring it up as a topic to see if others agree or if people think the current core stance is good.

There is not currently an active effort to reach full support for PHP8.

@jeffpaul noted that: PHP Compatibility and WordPress Versions handbook page that shows PHP8 support (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. support, compatible with exceptions).

@oglekler mentioned that: I am mostly working with 7.4 and from times to times have surprises like this: #46338.

There are 42.5% of WordPress sites using PHP8+ according to https://wordpress.org/about/stats/.

@ironprogrammer mentioned this related proposal: Proposal: Criteria for Removing “Beta Support” from Each PHP 8+ Version.

@joemcgill suggested this may be a conversation that needs to start in #core-php to see if there is already an active effort in place to continue making progress, and if not, try to kickstart the process.

@jorbin noted that the outline the criteria and process for reviewing each "beta support" PHP version with each WordPress major release  item is what is needed to get completed to move this forward. And then clearing out the php-compatability focus.

@joemcgill added that it seems like one of the biggest risks currently is that WP continues to show only beta support for supported PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher versions once 8.4 is released later this year, so it would be nice to make progress on this.

@costdev highlighted that this effort should be led by a sponsored contributor, due to the amount of work involved. @jorbin mentioned that if there is a host who wants to sponsor this, please get in touch via a DM or a comment on this post.

Aligning the coding standards for Core and Gutenberg so that both can use the same tooling

@jorbin kicked off this topic with:

This is inspired by two things:

  1. The lack of prettier / mismatched tooling for JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. between the two repos
  2. The conversation/PR a few months back to remove the WordPress-Docs ruleset from Gutenberg

It’s also something I was just raising for visibility.

Slack reference

@joemcgill noted that: As I recall, this has been mentioned as one of the main challenges to more frequent syncing of GB packages to Core, as well. (e.g., https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/discussions/59786#discussioncomment-8784550)

It looks like @get_dave was planning on writing a Make Core post following the above discussion on 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/. In that discussion, @antonvlasenko summarised two issues relating to the PHP side:

  1. Developing the missing linters to enforce WordPress Core standards.
  2. Fixing an issue with synchronizing the rulesets between Gutenberg and WordPress to ensure a unified set of linters.

@jorbin mentioned that for the JS side, there likely is going to need to be a mass reformatting commit or two (if it’s similar to the experience from when jshint was first put into place).

Highlighted posts

The full list of posts from the last week in Core can be read on the agenda at this link.

Open floor

@presskopp mentioned: From time to time I like to remind ourselves of the following, never giving up hope to be heard https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1627500098438000

@afragen mentioned: Just an FYI. We are working on the merge proposal for Rollback Auto-Update and would like to put it on the agenda for next week.

Props to @joemcgill for reviewing.

#6-6, #dev-chat, #summary

Joe McGill 9:10 am on April 12, 2024
Tags: 6-6, , ,   

Summary, Dev Chat, April 10, 2024

Start of the meeting in 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/., facilitated by @mikachan.

Announcements

WordPress 6.5.2 Maintenance and Security Release was released on Tuesday, April 9. WordPress version 6.5.1 could not be released due to a packaging error.

Forthcoming 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.: 6.6

We are officially in the WordPress 6.6 release cycle.

@priethor published this WordPress 6.6 Planning Proposal & Call for Volunteers post recently, and is currently collecting the names of squad and cohort volunteers to share with leadership.

@jeffpaul commented that “at least finalizing the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. & Editor tech leads and an RCrelease 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). would go a long way towards formally kicking off.”

@jorbin said, “I’ve also seen a couple questions about default themes and getting that kicked off during this release, I think getting an answer there would be helpful”

@joemcgill asked, “…what the focuses of this release would be. @chanthaboune originally proposed that 6.6 be held as a maintenance and polish release in this post, but I’m unsure if that’s still the plan.” And later, “To be clear, I’m not necessarily advocating for 6.6 to be mainly a polish release, I just see the need to be intentional in release planning if we want to actually execute that objective.”

Next maintenance release: 6.5.3

There are currently 13 open tickets in the 6.5.3 release milestone.

Later in the meeting @jorbin shared an initial proposed schedule for 6.5.3.

The first 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. for 6.5 is out, though it was a quick turnaround security release. For a proper minor release, I would like to gather thoughts on the following plan:

  1. @grantmkin has volunteered to help on the editor side (Thank you!)
  2. I would like to suggest a target of 7 May for 6.5.3 with an RC on 2 May. This will allow for about 4 weeks to identify and fix any bugs. I think Tuesday’s have served us fairly well.
  3. To assist in this, I would like to start 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. I’m thinking twice weekly with one focused on tracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. and one on 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/ until we get closer to the release with the last few looking at both bug trackers
Slack reference

Next 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/ release: 18.2

Gutenberg 18.1 was released on April 10 and included these issues. 18.2 is scheduled for April 24 and will include these issues.

Discussion

During discussion we checked in on the progress that the 6.5 release coordinators are making on organizing a release retro post (see this thread). @marybaum confirmed that @priethor, @marybaum, and @akshayar are working on this and will update the #6-5-release-leads channel soon.

It was confirmed that retros have been a part of our release process for several previous releases. Many of them can be found by lookin at the retrospective tagtag 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.) on this site.

Highlighted posts

The full list of posts from the last week in Core can be read on the agenda at this link.

Open floor

Tony Gravagno proposed that retrospectives could be used for marketing. “People need an occasional reminder and reinforcement that their platform of choice is aggressively maintained, despite occasional press about 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 vulnerabilities … which is all most people see about WP.” He then suggested that this might be better discussed in the #marketing channel.

Damon Cook shared that he has recently added details to the Project Updates and Details area in key Gutenberg GitHub Project boards (example: WordPress 6.6 Editor Tasks). Damon is planning on trying to keep those up to date throughout the cycle.

Screenshot of the status updates screen from GitHub project boards.


This prompted @jeffpaul to ask whether these updates could be provided on make/core to capture a broader audience.

“My lens is for someone who’s not in lots of GitHub issues, PRs, or boards and finds it hard to stay current on what’s transpiring there and thus not as able to contribute without that context.  Trying to find ways to bring some of that scattered context back to make/core for broader consumption and contextual understanding.”

Damon was open to experimenting on how to best cross-share info in both places. “…for now, I just wanted to make folks aware that I’ve started utilizing the feature and can even deactivate or remove it if it is confusing.”

The full conversation about these status updates starts here.

@dmsnell wanted to remind folks about his proposal to remove support for HTML4 and XHTML. “Doing this is mostly ceremonial, since those formats aren’t supported in reality. Removing them officially though gives us liberty to modernize existing code and improve WordPress’ HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers.-handling reliability. More info in the linked ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.: #59883“.

Props to @mikachan for reviewing.

#6-6, #core, #dev-chat, #summary

Sarah Norris 10:44 pm on April 3, 2024
Tags: , 6-6, 6-6-release-squad, ,   

Summary, Dev Chat, April 3, 2024

Start of the meeting in 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/., facilitated by @joemcgill.

Announcements

WordPress 6.5 “Regina” was released yesterday! Thank you to everyone who worked on, tested, and supported this release 🎉

Forthcoming 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.: 6.6

We are officially in the WordPress 6.6 release cycle. @priethor published this WordPress 6.6 Planning Proposal & Call for Volunteers post last week. Please take note of the following callouts on that post:

  • Please leave your feedback about the schedule and release squad size in the comments by April 7th.
  • If you are interested in participating in WordPress 6.6’s release squad as a lead or as a cohort, please show interest in the comments, specifying the role and the type of involvement (lead/cohort).

@colorful-tones and @fabiankaegy will be covering and merging TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress./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/ Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. for 6.6, and if anyone has any recommendations to streamline things for overall Triage to make lives easier, then please reach out to them.

For 6.6, we discussed considering not having a sticky post for 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. scrub schedule and instead ensuring the schedule is linked at the top of the main release page.

We also discussed 6.5.1, and noted that @jorbin published a post: Initial Bug Scrub for 6.5.1 for tomorrow. @fabiankaegy mentioned that the editor team have created this new board in GitHub to track any editor-related issues that may be candidates for a point 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.. Currently, there are 5 tickets with the backport to wp minor release label.

We also already have quite a few tickets targeted for the 6.5.1 milestone, so any eyes before the initial bug scrub will likely help that be more efficient.

Next Gutenberg release: 18.1

The next Gutenberg release will be 18.1, scheduled for release on April 10, and will include these issues.

Discussion

We began by discussing any potential follow-up actions and reflections following the recent 6.5 release. @fabiankaegy asked about starting a conversation about possibly evolving how we approach the field guideField 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. and 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. in future releases.

@jorbin has previously opened a related proposal to updating the field guide. We discussed where the most appropriate place was to start a conversation like this, and whether it sits more with CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., Docs, or Project. As it touches on many different areas and how we do things within software release cycles, then it seems to fit more into the Core team’s scope.

@audrasjb suggested this may be good to discuss in the future #6-6-release-squad Slack channel so maybe the squad could discuss it in the open with the future Docs Leads and come up with a formal proposal for 6.6 on Make/Core.

@joemcgill also proposed arranging another release retrospective post to collect feedback about the release while it’s still fresh in people’s minds. @chanthaboune mentioned being able to do this in any way that works for folks. For 6.4, we collected the data in an anonymized format and then that data was shared on make/core, and we discussed potentially following a similar approach for 6.5.

Highlighted posts

The full list of posts from the last week in Core can be read on the agenda at this link.

Open floor

We started by highlighting this PR for the WP Importer in support of the Font Library from @mmaattiiaass.

@kkmuffme mentioned that they’re looking for reviews on several PRs, listed in this message and this message.

Two additional issues that were raised in the agenda comments were:

  • https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/15117 – “the excerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox. regressionregression 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., that impacts all plugins incl. WooCommerce”
  • https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/59270 – “adding border setting to columns”

This issue was highlighted: Responsive previewing and device-specific editing. Nolan asked what the best way was to make a decision on the issue, as this has been open for 4 years. @annezazu replied with:

I understand that’s an important issue — it has been for a long time! I know some designers have recently chimed in there and there’s some momentum gathering. The best thing to do at this point is to be specific and keep sharing what would be helpful. Beyond that, the main blockerblocker A bug which is so severe that it blocks a release. is finding solid design solutions and finding specific/targeted ways to implement as anything that is implemented has to be maintained.

Also, @webcommsat highlighted a forthcoming contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. which is looking for core input and people to join. More info on here on Slack.

Props to @joemcgill for reviewing.

#6-5, #6-6, #dev-chat, #summary