With WordPress 3.7 and 3.8, we’re a project in major transition. Version 3.7 aims to solve for a lot of things that are weighing us down. (See the initial kickoff post.) What do you want to do? In terms of process, here is what is being worked on for 3.7:
Processes, Tools, Workflows
- New development tools — develop.svn.wordpress.org — run by @koop. If you are interested in Grunt, unit testing (including JS testing), and how we can streamline and modernize our workflows, this is for you.
- Code reference — inline documentation efforts — run by @rzen, @ericlewis, and @drewapicture. If you are interested in inline documentation, this is for you. See this post to get started.
- Process changes (including improvements to Trac and how we organize around components). If you want to write some Python for Trac, this is for you. If you’re just interested in helping with component reorganization, stay tuned here — there will be a post soon outlining a new component tree.
Security, Stability, and Updates
We have a few other focuses that all deal with a general theme of security and stability.
- Passwords. We are aiming to improve the adoption of best security practices by assisting with password generation. #24633. @duck_ is also working on some changes to strengthen cookies. #20276. If you are interested in security, this is for you.
- Updates. @dd32 and @pento will be heading up automatic updates for minor releases, as well as improving the trustworthiness of our upgrader. If you love updates and stability, this is for you.
- Language packs. We need to separate language files from plugins, themes, and core, allowing them to be maintained and updated independently (and, ideally, automatically). #18200. If you want to help WordPress’ global reach, hook up with me, @dd32, and @markoheijnen.
General Triage
Finally, we have 3,800 (already only 3,600) open tickets on Trac. There are dozens of components with many, many tickets. Already, there have been a few components with a strong base of contributors working on them, including:
- Multisite, currently being smashed by @jeremyfelt and others. If you like multisite and want to make it better and more stable, this is for you. There are currently 122 open tickets.
- JavaScript. A number of you have expressed interest on working on JavaScript in core. Whether that is shoring up the stability of existing features, improving existing JS, or working on a JS testing framework, this should be a great working group. @carldanley, @adamsilverstein, @nbachiyski, @kadamwhite, and others expressed interest.
- Query and Taxonomy. These two advanced areas of core kind of go hand-in-hand, not in the least because @wonderboymusic smashes query tickets with his left hand and taxonomy tickets with his right. If you’re interested in bringing down these tickets (68 and 93 open), this is for you.
- General triage. Folks like @c3mdigital and @avryl have been already going through old tickets either closing them out or finding diamonds in the rough. Or maybe you find that one of the many open components catches your interest. (Go here and choose any component from the drop-down to see all open tickets.) We’ll be coordinating efforts to work together both in IRC (especially during the weekly meetings) and here on make/core.
- Components with a lot of open tickets: General (376 tickets), Administration (302 tickets), Media (221 tickets), Template (161 tickets), Comments (135 tickets), Users (107 tickets), Themes (105 tickets), Formatting (98 tickets), Menus (96 tickets), Widgets (90 tickets), Plugins (90 tickets), Editor (85 tickets), Upgrade/Install (84 tickets), Import (70 tickets). If you want to do general triage, General and Administration in particular need a lot of work!
Today during the weekly meeting, we’ll be talking about ongoing efforts, rallying the troops and helping to assemble working groups, and setting up some times for regular triage meetings.
So, what do you want to work on? Let’s start coordinating in the comments.