Merge Twenty Sixteen with the rest of WordPress Core

[jorbin]

While github has served Twentysixteen well when it was under active development, now that it is in maintenance, it's proving to be more of a hassle to keep it

1) It is a unique snowflake when it comes to releases that is hard to keep track of
2) Fractured development means things get missed. Out of sight, out of mind
3) It's harder to ensure the theme is updated as new features are added.
4) Spending hours during each release making sure that the correct version of twentysix is bundled slows us down.

[dd32]

Although I was initially against developing the theme outside of WordPress's SVN, I ultimately did like the flow which it promoted for the type of Development it was.

But since then, the fractured development efforts between core trac and Github have really come out. I'm also in support of merging it back to SVN.

I should note, that this doesn't mean TwentySeventeen should be done in SVN - I'd actually encourage that to be on Github too, but that without better tooling, we do need to manage everything in one place, which means it should be merged to SVN at RC stage (IMHO).

[davidakennedy]

I've helped test and package the changes in all default for release in the theme directory for the past few releases. I watch and test all the changes in default themes as a result. Having Twenty Sixteen in a different place with a different flow certainly makes those tasks more time consuming and a bit harder. That said, the slow down during the 4.5 release was really due to the different process for Twenty Sixteen not being written down somewhere, and all those involved not knowing enough about it. Myself included. The process is slightly different for a release than a beta or release candidate, which is confusing.

All that said, I'd be willing to let Twenty Sixteen and future default themes remain on Github if it meant that the themes saw more bug fixes and features implemented by more contributors. That happened when Twenty Sixteen was first in active development on Github. That's great for WordPress and themes. And we can figure out the tooling and processes to make this better. I don't think that's an obstacle.

If you look at the changelogs for the themes this release (4.5), there isn't a noticeable difference between the amount of work on Twenty Sixteen vs. default themes in Core. See: #36354 and ​http://codex.wordpress.org/Twenty_Sixteen_Theme_Changelog#Version_1.2

So I'd be in favor of meeting in the middle. A new default theme gets developed on Github (as long as that makes sense), and then when WordPress reaches release candidate for that release or the theme is considered stable, the theme is merged and maintenance happens in Core.

We can always change paths later too, if we decide a new way is better.

[karmatosed]

I actually agree with a combined approach. First up, I really think there were a lot of benefits from developing this on GitHub. I think the benefits of doing that were far beyond the issues to a point. I think now that point has come.

Having the theme be treated more like a feature project in that sense makes a lot of sense. It also means we can maybe even create Twenty Seventeen outside sooner. GitHub saw a lot of different people contribute and I'd love to see that carried over to Twenty Seventeen.

Moving the theme when released into core takes it away from isolation and a few gatekeepers. I think that's important for work flows and maintenance. I know I've had a harder time juggling between the different sources this release than I did when it was being developed. This is in part as it's not a theme release, release and as such the focus in core themes is on maintenance. That's harder to do in two places.

I really hope we do new themes still on GitHub though and don't take this as a sign we shouldn't. It worked to a point and as said, that point is now reached. Interactions have been minimal over there this cycle. That's expected as themes are quieter when not in release mode. By bringing it back in we make sure we focus our maintenance during those quieter releases.

[kraftbj]

One issue was how to merge them that wouldn't break SVN checkouts. For future themes, use GitHub with a slug of "twentyseveteen-dev" or something to that effect, so when it comes time to merge it into SVN, it would be a new folder "twentyseventeen".

[karmatosed]

@ocean90 do you want to bring this up as release lead and see where we go with this? I'm slightly concerned we don't get a decision before we face the same issues again.

[ocean90]

@karmatosed I don't see the need for merging the theme into SVN. It's a matter of communication between a release lead and the theme team. You can bet on that I'll bug the team before the release. :)

[karmatosed]

@ocean90 great, thanks for your input. I really just wanted to have a decision one way or other at this point. Shall we close this if we're not going to do it? We should also document how we're going to do it from now on.

[DrewAPicture]

Replying to karmatosed:

@ocean90 great, thanks for your input. I really just wanted to have a decision one way or other at this point. Shall we close this if we're not going to do it? We should also document how we're going to do it from now on.

An entry should probably be added to the ​Releasing Major Versions article in the core handbook.

[karmatosed]

If the decision isn't to merge, can we close this ticket up then?

[DrewAPicture]

Let's get it documented first, then we can close it.

[karmatosed]

Is this something we can close now?

[karmatosed]

@DrewAPicture are we still waiting on documentation?

[karmatosed]

I'm tentatively closing this, please re-open if I am doing so wrongly.

[davidakennedy]

I'm reopening this, as it came up today with some valid points raised by @obenland. See:

​https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RP4VMP/p1489769942402661

It's probably a good time to look at this again, and consider bringing Twenty Sixteen to trunk. I'd be for it.

[obenland]

Let's bring 2016 back to core. It's a four-step process:

1. Update release script. ✅ ​[dotorg13183].
2. Update nightly-build script (needs to be done by systems).
3. Commit Twenty Sixteen.
4. Profit.

[azaozz]

36497.diff looks good but had some problems applying it. SVN created all files but didn't "add" a dozen or so...

Made 36497.2.diff which should be identical in functionality but lists the content of each file twice (SVN does that when adding new files in a patch). Also added svn:eol-style +native there.

+1 to commit.

[obenland]

In 40851:

Importing Twenty Sixteen, default theme for 2016.

Fixes #36497.

[obenland]

In 40855:

Import Twenty Sixteen for the 4.7 branch.

See #36497.

[obenland]

In 40857:

Import Twenty Sixteen for the 4.6 branch.

See #36497.

[obenland]

In 40858:

Import Twenty Sixteen, default theme for 2016.

See #36497.

Merges [40851] and [40852] to the 4.5 branch.

[obenland]

In 40860:

Import Twenty Sixteen, default theme for 2016.

See #36497.

Merges [40851] and [40852] to the 4.4 branch.