The Front End Developer Handbook 2024, State of HTML and State of JavaScript 2023 Results, TypeScript 5.5, and more | Front End News #109

The Front End Developer Handbook 2024, State of HTML and State of JavaScript 2023 Results, TypeScript 5.5, and more

— Front End News #109 | 8 iulie 2024 —

Front End News is back after a long pause, and the topics are extensive. We'll start with the updated 2024 edition of the Front End Developer/Engineer Handbook by Cody Lindley and the Front End Masters. Next, we have the long-awaited results of the State of HTML and State of JavaScrip 2023 surveys.

There is a lot of news about the Web Platform and mainstream browsers. Google I/O and WWDC were used to announce many upcoming changes. A new player enters the game - Arc, from the Browser Company, is now available on Windows. We have releases from Chrome (125/126), Firefox (126/127), Polypane (19/20), Vivaldi (6.7/6.8), and WebKit/Safari (17.5/18-beta).

Developers have plenty of new shiny versions of their favorite tools of the trade. Angular 18, Electron 30-31, Nuxt 3.12, TypeScript 5.5 RC, and multiple releases from Astro, Deno, ESLint, or Node are just some of the recent releases. There is even a jQuery UI update - are you still using it?

As usual, we wrap up with Front End Resources. This issue includes a large set of icons, shapes, generators, tools, and utilities, all free for you to use.

The Front End Developer/Engineer Handbook 2024

Cody Lindley and the Front End Masters are back with a new Front End Developer Handbook edition. It is the long-expected continuation of a series that took a break in 2019. The industry has experienced many changes over the past five years, and the Handbook is back with fresh advice to help developers master their careers.

State of HTML 2023 Results

State of HTML 2023 is the first attempt at surveying what the community thinks about the current state of HTML. It covered not only the HTML elements, but accessibility, web components, and a lot more. There were over 20000 people and a lot of answers to process. With a new way of displaying the results, we can understand why it took nearly half of 2024 to see them.

Forms and inputs are still major pain points; people want native elements for common interface elements like tabs, and web components are becoming increasingly popular. However, many new features are held back by the lack of wide browser support. You can find more details on the survey results pages.

State of JavaScript 2023 Results

The State of JavaScript is the second survey we discuss in this issue. It had the same ambitious reach as its State of HTML counterpart, with many freeform answer options. Over 23500 developers took part in this edition, and here are some of their choices.

React leads the pack for another year, while Vue climbs to second place, pushing Angular down to third place. Next.js increases its lead over the other meta-frameworks, while Electron and React Native are struggling fiercely for the top spot among mobile and desktop tool kits. Over 70% of the respondents write mostly TypeScript, while less than 10% write only pure JavaScript.

💻 Browser News

Web Platform Updates

Google I/O 2024 facilitated a surge of content from the Web.dev team. We take a peek at how AI will integrate with web development work or what new things have appeared for CSS and the web at large,

The newly launched Web Platform Status website makes tracking browser support for any feature easier. This will also serve as a guideline for the yearly Baseline sets, so it's worth keeping an eye on it.

Last but not least, we have Rachel Andrew's monthly updates on what's new on the web platform.

Arc

Arc is a new(ish) browser from the Browser Company. It has been making waves on macOS and iOS over the last couple of years, and it just arrived on Windows, where Chrome reigns supreme. This launch also propelled Swift (a programming language created by Apple) to become a viable alternative for building Windows applications.

Arc aims to be more than a browser, instead becoming "the operating system for the Internet." The release received a warm reception and good reviews from platforms like The Verge or Tech Radar, which I'm adding below.

Chrome

Chrome released two versions since the last issue of this newsletter. Chrome 125 brings CSS Anchor Positioning, the Compute Pressure API (measuring the CPU load), and the option to use the Storage Access API for non-cookie storage.

Chrome 126 allows cross-document transitions for same-origin navigation; the CloseWatcher API is back for dialog and popover elements; the DevTools are now running Lighthouse 12.0.0, and more.

Firefox

Firefox 126 allows users to share URLs without tracking parameters. It also supports the zstd compression (heavily used on sites like Facebook) and provides various security fixes.

Firefox 127 brings some quality-of-life improvements (such as auto-launch on Windows or better password security), various security fixes, an improved Screenshot feature, and more.

Polypane

Polypane has also grown two full versions since the last issue. Polypane 19 brings various workflow improvements, such as automatic dark mode emulation, Chromium 124, and more.

Polypane 20 brings Chromium 126, various performance tweaks, better screenshot functionality, and more.

Vivaldi

Vivaldi also had a double release across all three platforms: desktop, iOS, and Android. Vivaldi 6.7 brings better memory performance on desktops, support for multiple windows on iPads, and many quality-of-life improvements on Android devices.

Moving on to update 6.8, we get Vivaldi Mail 2.0, an updated AdBlocker, and better tab management.

WebKit

The WebKit team is determined to prove that Safari is NOT the new Internet Explorer. This means they worked hard to keep their browser on par (or even ahead) of the other browsers. Safari 17.5 brings new CSS features (text-wrap: balance, the light-dark() color function, and @starting-style) and many fixes and quality-of-life improvements.

Apple had its own event - WWDC24 - and used the occasion to highlight the upcoming features in Safari 18 Beta. As release notes are never too user-friendly, I'm linking an article by Stefan Judis, where he discusses all the new stuff, providing extra info about overall browser coverage, Baseline support, and any other relevant data.

📡 The Release Radar

🛠️ Front End Resources

There's more where that came from. Explore the rest of the Front End Resource collection.

Wrapping things up

Ukraine is still suffering from the Russian invasion. If you want to find ways to help, please read Smashing Magazine's article We All Are Ukraine 🇺🇦 or contact your trusted charity.

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That's all I have for this issue. Have a great and productive week, keep yourselves safe, and spend as much time as possible with your loved ones. I will see you again next time!

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