WordPress 6.0 Released, Led By 10up Core Tech Lead

Jeff Paul on June 3, 2022 • 2 Comments

Last week saw the release of WordPress 6.0 — a release that improves the block editor and full site editing experience through an upgraded user interface that simplifies page composition and content creation. Eleven 10uppers contributed to WordPress 6.0, with Senior Engineer Peter Wilson serving as Release Lead / Core Tech Lead, and myself credited as a Noteworthy Contributor.

WordPress 6.0 boasts more than 50 block editor accessibility enhancements alongside performance improvements that reduce the number of database queries WordPress makes on page requests, especially in the WordPress admin.

Other notable highlights include:

• The introduction of a page patterns API that will eventually empower content creators to select predefined block combinations for an entire page, like a contact page or about us page.
• A new “comments” block for full site editing that provides granular control over the design and display of comments.
• Code improvements for list, quote, image, and group blocks, as well as new button features and the ability to maintain existing styles when transforming some blocks from one kind to another.
• The addition of a Global Style Switcher, expanding the Global Styles and Global Settings capabilities introduced in WordPress 5.8, that supports multiple theme style presets. Global Style Switching enables site owners to change the look of their site with the click of a button and without changing or editing their theme.

10up + WordPress

10up team members have been a part of every WordPress release since 3.2, with our founder and president’s first comment on the Core Trac made more than 10 years ago. WordPress 6.0 carries on that tradition with eleven 10up contributors, including our own Peter Wilson as Release Lead / Core Tech Lead and a Noteworthy Contributor recognition for myself.

Peter brought his engineering and agency experience to his role as Tech Lead to help ensure the stability and quality of the code committed to WordPress core. While Peter may downplay his role, claiming to have only written a few hundred lines of code for this release cycle, a closer look at his role tells a different story.

All code at 10up goes through a comprehensive code review process before it’s released. As Tech Lead, Peter provided that same level of code review for contributing developers. He reviewed hundreds of tickets and tens of thousands of lines of code, testing pull requests, reporting bugs, and providing feedback and suggestions to improve code.

“Going through the code review process makes me a better developer. When reviewing your own code, you read what you intended to write, not what you actually wrote. Getting a fresh perspective often means catching something I missed and that creates a better end product.” — Peter Wilson

Thank you for helping make WordPress: Ankit Gupta, Barry Ceelen, Dhanendran Rajagopal, Dharmesh Patel, Fabian Kaegy, Felipe Elia, Jeffrey Paul, John Watkins, Peter Wilson, Siddharth Thevaril, and Stephanie Walters.