Accessibility, or the act of ensuring a high quality experience for all users regardless of blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. #
(and super admin) #
alpha (beta)
Pre-release version of software intended to signal desire for compatibility, functional, and unit tests and feedback. Also see release candidate. #
back compat
Backward compatibility – a desire to ensure that plugins and themes do not break under new releases – is a driving philosophy of WordPress. While it is a commonly accepted software development practice to break compatibility in major releases, WordPress strives to avoid this at all costs. Any backward incompatible change is carefully considered by the entire core development team and announced, with affected plugins often contacted. It should be noted that external libraries, such as jQuery, do have backward incompatible changes between major releases, which is often going to be a greater concern for developers. #
bleeding edge
The latest revision of the software, generally in development and often unstable. Also known as trunk. #
A bug which is so severe that it blocks a release. #
(versus network, site) #
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”. #
command line interface (CLI)
A type of human-computer interface (i.e., a way for humans to interact with computers) that relies solely on textual input and output. The entire display screen, or the currently active portion of it, shows only characters (and no images), and input is usually performed entirely with a keyboard. #
commit (noun)
An individual change to WordPress, identified by an incremental revision number. Also called a changeset. #
commit (verb)
To make a change to WordPress. Only committers can commit code, but often the code is contributed by developers without commit access. #
A developer with commit access. WordPress has five lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally, the project usually has a few guest or component committers – a developer receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed) and/or for a specific component. #
Copyright holders may grant a license with various allowances including the ability to modify or distribute the copyrighted material. Also see GPL. #
Create, read, update and delete, the four basic functions of storing data. (More on Wikipedia.) #
Cascading Style Sheets. #
(phpdoc, xref, inline docs) #
The practice of using one’s own software, typically bleeding edge (trunk), thus “eating one’s own dogfood”. This also applies to using one’s own APIs internally. #
feature request
A feature request should generally begin the process in the ideas forum, on a mailing list, as a plugin, or brought to the attention of the core team, such as through scope meetings held for each major release. Unsolicited tickets of this variety are typically, therefore, discouraged. #
GNU General Public License. Also see copyright license. #
Integrated Development Environment. A software package that provides a full suite of functionality to software developers/programmers. Normally an IDE includes a source code editor, code-build tools and debugging functionality. #
inline docs
(phpdoc, docblock, xref) #
Localization, or the act of translating code into one’s own language. Also see internationalization. Often written with an uppercase L so it is not confused with the capital letter i or the numeral 1. WordPress has a capable and dynamic group of polyglots who take WordPress to more than 70 different locales. #
major release
A collection of P2 blogs at, which are the home to a number of contributor groups, including core development (make/core, formerly “wpdevel”), the UI working group (make/ui), translators (make/polyglots), the theme reviewers (make/themes), resources for plugin authors (make/plugins), and the accessibility working group (make/accessibility). #
mu-plugins, must-use plugins
(include old history as “multi-user”; x-ref with drop-ins) #
(versus site, blog) #
The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 #
(docblock, inline docs) #
point release
A minor release of WordPress, identified by the third number (the 2 in 3.5.2). These releases are for maintenance and security fixes only. Feature development is limited to major releases. Changes to point releases are carefully considered, and only critical or blocker-level bugs, and security enhancements, hardening, and fixes are accepted. #
priority (bug tracker)
The seriousness of a bug report or ticket in the eyes of the project. Generally, severity is a judgment of how bad a bug is, while priority is its relationship to other bugs. #
priority (hooks)
(higher priority means lower number) #
Contributors sometimes use the verb “punt” when talking about a ticket. This means it is being pushed out to a future release. This typically occurs for lower priority tickets near the end of the release cycle that don’t “make the cut.” In this is colloquial usage of the word, it means to delay or equivocate. (It also describes a play in American football where a team essentially passes up on an opportunity, hoping to put themselves in a better position later to try again.) #
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. #
release candidate
scope creep
The tendency for requirements to increase during a release’s development cycle beyond those originally approved for the upcoming release. Something to be avoided. Also known as feature creep. #
security issue
The seriousness of the ticket in the eyes of the reporter. Generally, severity is a judgment of how bad a bug is, while priority is its relationship to other bugs. #
(versus network, blog) #
task (blessed)
Feature development for an upcoming major release centers around task tickets, which are major features or important enhancements that have been blessed by the core team. A ticket should otherwise never receive this designation. #
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. #
User interface #
unit test
User experience #
version control
A version control system keeps track of the source code and revisions to the source code. WordPress uses Subversion (SVN) for version control, with Git mirrors for most repositories. #
A resolution on the bug tracker (and generally common in software development) that indicates the ticket will not be addressed further. This may be used for acceptable edge cases (for bugs), or enhancements that have been rejected for core inclusion. #
A resolution on the bug tracker (and generally common in software development) that indicates the bug reported cannot be reproduced. #
Formerly the development updates P2 blog at It is now make/core and resides at #
(php-xref, phpdoc, inline docs) #