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Frontend stable policy: Making it official
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This e-mail was also sent to wikitech-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org/thread/RX5WS2P5HSTYOC2JH4B647I2JEV4GVLT/

Dear fellow developers! If you don't work on gadgets or Wikimedia code, feel free to ignore this email!

For some time we've had the Stable interface policy which has been super helpful for backend-development. I would love us to have an equivalent for frontend code.

For the past 3 years we have been building one with feedback and suggestions from gadget developers, WMF staff and Wikimedia volunteers. The current draft can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Jdlrobson/Stable_interface_policy/frontend

I would like to make this policy official so that we can get the benefits of having a document and continue to evolve it in a more official capacity.

If anyone wants to veto this, I'd like to hear from you on the talk page or by a reply to this email (either privately or publicly). When making a veto please make that explicit and include the text you find problematic and details about why.

If there is no active veto after one month, this policy will be made official and moved to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Stable_interface_policy/frontend.

Thanks in advance for all your help with this important matter!

Jon Robson
PS. This note has also been sent to tech news.

Event Timeline

Thanks! This has been added to https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2023/34 using this wording.

There is an existing stable interface policy for MediaWiki backend code. There is a proposed stable interface policy for frontend code. This is relevant for anyone who works on gadgets or Wikimedia frontend code. You can read it, discuss it, and let the proposer know if there are any problems. [2]

If the wording needs tweaks or changes, please do so directly (or let us know what exact changes are needed) within the next ~28 hours, after which it will be frozen for translation.

Jdlrobson claimed this task.

Yep! Thanks for the ping!

I've added a section/link at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Stable_interface_policy#Frontend_policy
and it is a standalone policy so I also added it to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Template:Development_guidelines_navigation (indented bullets are auto-wrapped in parentheses)
More links from any relevant locations would be great.