NOTE: This is issue #106 of my newsletter, which went live on Monday, February 4. You might find this information valuable and exciting and want to receive future issues as they are published ahead of everyone else. In that case, I invite you to join the subscriber list at frontendnexus.com.
Welcome to the first issue of Front End News in 2024. Having a significant break between updates means there are more things worth mentioning. And today's list of topics is extensive. Therefore, there will be a lot more links and less commentary. Enjoy!
2023 was an excellent year for the web platform when we consider Interop 2023 and Interop 2024, the introduction of Baseline, and the many advancements done in leveling the field for CSS development and compatibility among the main browsers.
In Browser News, we discuss the additions to the web platform at the end of 2023 and the releases to the main browsers: Chrome 120-121, Firefox 120-122, Microsft Edge 119-121, Polypane 17.0-17.1, Safari 17.2-17.3, and Vivaldi 6.5. On top of all that, Apple will start allowing other browser engines to run on iOS devices for users inside the European Union.
The Release Radar shows lots of entries as well. We have multiple updates from Astro, Deno, Ember, React Toolkit, YouTube.js, and Node. Other noteworthy names are Angular 17.1, Electron 28, SvelteKit 2, Tailwind CSS v3.4, TypeScript 5.3, or Vue 3.4.
Next, we got a fair collection of assets and utilities, with AI and SVG sprinkled on top. We round things up with a reminder about all the quality content in the advent calendars published in December.
Interop 2023-2024
Interop is the industry initiative I am most pleased about. It brought an unprecedented level of cooperation between browser vendors. It also made life a lot easier for web developers everywhere. Today, we have multiple points of view from some of the parts involved in this process, both about what happened last year and the plans for 2024.
- Bocoup: Interop 2024 Launch
- Chrome: Celebrate a more interoperable web with Interop 2023 | Interop 2024
- Firefox: Announcing Interop 2024
- Igalia: Interop 2024 Launches
- Microsoft Edge: Microsoft Edge and Interop 2024
- Webkit: The web just gets better with Interop 2024
Baseline 2023
Baseline is another 2023 initiative aiming to streamline and improve feature support across web browsers and the industry in general. In the following article, Rachel Andrew highlights the changes in the definition between "newly" and "widely" available features and covers most newly available elements in 2023.
CSS Wrapped: 2023!
CSS is the web technology I care about the most. Therefore, I had to mention the roundup made by the Chrome team regarding all the new CSS features that landed in 2023.
💻 Browser News
Unsurprisingly, there is so much browser news in this issue. From the monthly "new to the web platform" summaries to the many browser releases: Chrome 120-121, Firefox 120-122, Microsft Edge 119-121, Polypane 17.0-17.1, Safari 17.2-17.3, and Vivaldi 6.5.
- New to the web platform in November
- New to the web platform in December
- New to the web platform in January
Chrome
- New in Chrome 120 / What's new in DevTools (Chrome 120)
- New in Chrome 121 / What's new in DevTools (Chrome 121)
Firefox
- Firefox 120 / Firefox 120 for developers
- Firefox 121 / Firefox 121 for developers
- Firefox 122 / Firefox 122 for developers
Microsoft Edge
Polypane
Vivaldi
- Vivaldi celebrates the Holidays with a feature-packed update
- Vivaldi on Android gains Full History Sync and adds a separate Search Engine setting for Private Tabs
WebKit
Last but not least, the EU has forced Apple to allow other browser engines to run on iOS devices. I look forward to seeing the rest of the world push the Cupertino giant to do the same for everyone else.
📡 The Release Radar
- AdonisJS v6 - Node.js Framework highly focused on developer ergonomics, stability, and confidence
- Angular 17.1 - Deliver web apps with confidence
- Astro 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 - The web framework that scales with you
- Culori v4.0.0 - A comprehensive color library for JavaScript
- Deno 1.39, 1.40 - A modern runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript
- Dependency cruiser v16.0.0 - Validate and visualize dependencies
- Electron 28.0.0 - Build cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
- Ember.js v5.5.0, v5.6.0 - A JavaScript framework for creating ambitious web applications
- Fresh 1.6 - The next-gen web framework
- HTML5 Boilerplate v9.0.0 - A professional front-end template for building fast, robust, and adaptable web apps or sites
- Jint v3.0.0 - Javascript Interpreter for .NET
- Mongoose 8 - MongoDB object modeling designed to work in an asynchronous environment.
- Neutralinojs v5.0.0 - Portable and lightweight cross-platform desktop application development framework
- Next.js 14.1 - The React Framework
- Node v21.3.0, v21.4.0, v21.5.0, v20.11.0 (LTS), v21.6.0, February 2024 Security Releases - an asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime
- Nuxt 3.9 - The Intuitive Vue Framework
- Parcel v2.11.0 - The zero configuration build tool for the web
- Prettier 3.2 - An opinionated code formatter
- Puppeteer v21.10.0 - Node.js API for Chrome
- Qwik v1.4.0 - Instant-loading web apps, without effort
- React Email 2.0 - Build and send emails using Reactw
- React Native 0.73 - A framework for building native applications using React
- React Redux v9.1.0 - Official React bindings for Redux
- Redux Toolkit v2.0.0, v2.1.0 - The official, opinionated, batteries-included toolset for efficient Redux development
- SvelteKit 2 - web development, streamlined
- Tailwind CSS v3.4 - A utility-first CSS framework for rapid UI development
- TypeScript 5.3 - a superset of JavaScript that compiles to clean JavaScript output
- Vue 3.4 - a progressive, incrementally-adoptable JavaScript framework for building UI on the web
- YouTube.js v8.0.0, v8.1.0, v8.2.0 - A wrapper around YouTube's internal API
🛠️ Front End Resources
- Big Heads - Randomly Generated Characters for Your Apps & Games
- Colour Contrast Checker - Check the contrast between different colour combinations against WCAG standards
- CSS Gradients - A collection of beautiful free-to-use CSS gradients
- Flectofy - Generate custom SVG shapes
- GitHub Profile Generator - Create awesome GitHub profiles and showcase your skills and projects easily
- Loadership - Customize and generate stunning loaders for your website
- SVG.io - Free AI - Text prompt to SVG
- SVG Chart Generator - Free online SVG line & bar chart generator by the MagicPattern design toolbox
- UI Faces - Free ✨ AI-generated avatars for your creative projects
- unstock.ai - AI-generated vector logos, icons & illustrations
There's more where that came from. Explore the rest of the Front End Resource collection.
2023 Advent Calendars Roundup
December is a special month in the web development industry. That's when many brilliant developers distill their knowledge in tech advent calendars. I have rounded up many of these collections for the fourth time, and I invite you to browse them at your leisure.
Wrapping things up
Ukraine is still suffering from the Russian invasion - if you are looking for ways to help, please check 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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