In reply to Milan Petrovic.

@matt

To start off, I want to make it clear that I think Gutenberg is the future of WordPress and should absolutely be merged into core at some point. However, I am becoming increasingly concerned at the release schedule.

Despite some differences that still need be resolved, there’s general consensus that the long-term way to create the best WP experience for all types of users is not something you can tack on with 5-6 weeks at the end, but will be the result of continuing the continuous iteration we’ve had with the 42 public releases of Gutenberg so far. It means we can get improvements into the hands of users within weeks following a release, not months (or years) as was the old model with WordPress.

You can still have continuous iteration without merging Gutenberg into core yet. Why not just continue to develop it out of core until all the major accessibility issues (see David Finch's comment) are fixed?

What makes it so important to merge Gutenberg into core WordPress right now? Why can't it be delayed several months? People who are impatient to get their hands on Gutenberg can simply install the plugin like they have been able to for the past several months.

How does it make any sense to release an update with Gutenberg as the default editor, and then recommend a plugin to anyone who has accessibility issues? If you are going to recommend the Classic Editor to people who can't use Gutenberg due to accessibility issues, then Gutenberg is not ready to be the default editor.

Continuous iteration does not mean you have to release something that isn't at a stable point yet for millions of users. You should just keep developing it as a plugin until it reaches that state.

This push to release Gutenberg in core within the next couple of weeks makes no sense to me. So far I have not seen any real answers as to why... only suggested workarounds for those who will be affected. Workarounds are not solutions.

Releasing Gutenberg in core implies it is ready for all WordPress users, but clearly, that seems to not yet actually be the case. Therefore, the logical conclusion that I see is to delay merging Gutenberg into core, put a big focus on fixing accessibility issues and resolving any other major bugs, and _then_ merging it into core.

You may say that getting it into core will help Gutenberg get more testers, but with all the issues it already has, I don't Gutenberg needs more testers yet. You should be focusing on the issues you already know about and fixing those before releasing it to more people.

Saying "we'll fix it in a minor bugfix update" is not a solution. Just because you fix the issue a week or so after release is not a justification for releasing the update with known issues in the first place. It is treating accessibility users as second-rate, which seems to against WordPress' philosophy.

Who benefits from Gutenberg being released right now? Plugin and theme devs wanting to integrate would benefit from having extra time to work on integration before the merge into core (since the APIs have only recently stabilized), accessibility users would be happy since they would not be pushed to the side for a couple weeks in favor of a quick release, and people who find Gutenberg difficult to use regardless of accessibility issues would benefit as there would be more time to fix general usability issues. People who want to use Gutenberg right now have always been able to do so.