Dev chat summary – September 29, 2021

@audrasjb led the chat on this agenda. You can also read the Slack logs.

Highlighted blogblog (versus network, site) posts

Bringing to your attention some interesting reads and some call for feedback and/or volunteers:

Worth mentioning:

Thanks to the 23 contributors of the past week, including 4 new contributors! Kudos to the 5 coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. committers of the week, too.

A Week in Core – September 27, 2021

Upcoming releases updates

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.(s)

@desrosj and @circlecube are still leading the 5.8.x releases. They published a schedule for 5.8.2 and –if needed– 5.8.3.

The 5.8.x point releases are coordinated in the #5-8-release-leads 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/. channel. This channel is public and will be archived once 5.9 is released.

@costdev pointed out that 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. for ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #53801 leads to a change in both Core and in the @wordpress/widgets package and asked for advices for how to ensure that any changes are committed at the same time to minimise issues on either end. @audrasjb answered that there is already an issue for this ticket in the 5.8.2 Gutenberg project board.

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.

Concerning the next major release —WordPress 5.9— a planning roundup was published a couple weeks ago.

Worth noting that @chanthaboune proposed a review of the upcoming 5.9 key features in the last issue of the WordPress.org podcast.

@audrasjb ran a first 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 last week to review the tickets marked early. He will run another one on Thursday September 30, 2019 at 20:00 UTC.

Reminder: everyone is welcome to run a bug scrub on the #core Slack channel. If you are interested, please read this handbook post: Leading bug scrubs and get in touch with @audrasjb or @francina for details.

Also, @audrasjb silently scrubbed the Future Release queue and moved a dozen of tickets (in various components) to 5.9, with refreshed patches when needed. Most of them are ready and waiting for review/commit.

Component maintainers updates

Build/Test Tools – @sergeybiryukov

PHPUnit 9.5.10 and 8.5.21 were released with a breaking change: PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher deprecations are no longer converted to exceptions by default (convertDeprecationsToExceptions="true" can be configured to enable this). See changeset [51871] and ticket #54183 for more details.

This is also included in the Changes to the WordPress Core PHP Test Suite dev notedev 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., which is highly recommended to read as it includes other important changes 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 and theme authors using the WordPress Core test framework as a basis for their integration tests.

Upgrade/Install – @afragen

@afragen shared that there is currently a lot of activity on a 9 years old ticket: #22316. He added a new PR which is ready for review.

@audrasjb added that the design of the feature was discussed during the last #core-auto-updates weekly meeting.

@joyously asked if it is supposed to handle initial installation or deactivation and uninstall also? @audrasjb answered that it only handles initial installation, because a dependency could exists without the “base” plugin.

@joyously asked what value does this enhancementenhancement Enhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. add to the existing implementation. @clorith answered that It surfaces which plugins would enhance (or enable) functionality, so yes it has value. @audrasjb added that it standardizes a process which currently has many different implementations.

@afragen encouraged testers to install the PR, add a test plugin with a couple of dot org plugin slugs in a comma separated list in the Required Plugins 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.. Removing or changing the header name will deactivate those dependencies from being displayed.

Toolbar – @sabernhardt

@sabernhardt shared a draft of a Toolbar component update post.

He also pointed out that a docs update (#54191) was just committed today.

Open Floor

From @marybaum and @annezazu: there is a new testing call in the Full Site Editing Outreach Program.

@costdev noted that the Administration component doesn’t have a maintainer currently listed. He asked for a review of #53152. @sergeybiryukov moved it to milestone 5.9.

@pbearne asked for a review of #54020. He’s available to make a simpler patch if needed.

@webcommsat shared that tomorrow (30 September) is the last day of #WPTranslationDay 2021. Everyone is welcome to come and join the polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. for the final event and the celebrations from 16:00 UTC.

#5-8-x, #5-9, #dev-chat, #summary