In an official proclamation, the luminary Executive Director of WordPress, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, has unveiled a strategic blueprint for the impending year of 2024. Embarking on a trilogy of substantial core releases, the scheduled dates, while yet to be etched in stone, have been meticulously plotted to circumvent significant holidays and concurrent WordPress extravaganzas.
Marking the inaugural release of the year, WordPress 6.5 is slated for a grand debut on March 26, followed by the majestic 6.6 spectacle in the month of July, and a climactic 6.7 crescendo in the early throes of November.
Despite having ceremoniously concluded the second phase of the ambitious Gutenberg project, with a discernible focus on Site Customization, the spotlight of 6.4 was cast on the augmentation of existing features within the block and site editors. Simultaneously, it laid the foundation for the nascent explorations into the third phase—Collaboration. The forthcoming releases in the epoch of 2024 will unfurl a tapestry rich in collaborative features, as articulated by the sagacious Chomphosy.
Anticipating a deluge of collaborative endeavors in the imminent year, Chomphosy avowed, “Given that 2024 will bear the brunt of Phase 3’s workload, I foresee that 6.5 and 6.7 will pivot towards these collaborative features. I would like to posit that 6.6 be reserved expressly for the meticulous maintenance and general refinement of our software, echoing the collective aspiration earlier this year.”
In a bid to solicit input on the temporal and thematic nuances of the proposed releases, Chomphosy sought the wisdom of the WordPress community. Core committer Pascal Birchler, astutely recommended a recalibration in the thematic emphasis of 6.5 and 6.6, citing the ambiguity surrounding the readiness of Phase 3 components for the initial release. This proposition gains added resonance when considering features that failed to secure a berth in the preceding release.
The release squad for WordPress 6.4, having faced the need to defer the scheduled flagship features for typography management, casts an anticipatory gaze towards 6.5. Among these is the inclusion of a Font Library and the groundbreaking server-side @font-face CSS generation and printing. This pioneering feature will empower users to peruse a comprehensive font library within the administrative domain, akin to media management. Remarkably, its functionality will transcend the constraints of the active theme, representing a library of extensible dimensions for discerning plugin developers.
The ongoing discourse pertaining to the releases slated for 2024 is enlivened within the comments section of the missive. Additionally, denizens of the WordPress realm may look forward to gaining further insights into the impending year during the live rendition of Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word address, emanating from the vibrant heart of Madrid on December 11, 2023.