Front-End Fire

We first reported on Evan You's company void0 back in October, 2024, and now Evan and co are making good on their promise to rework the entire JS toolchain from the ground up with the release of Rolldown-Vite. The new package is a drop-in replacement for the Vite bundler we all know and love, with benefits like production build time reductions of up to 16x and memory usage decreases of up to 100x. Replacement is easy and the perf gains are real. Try it today.Apple just held WWDC25 and announced big updates in Safari 26 beta. Favicons get replaced with SVG icons, any website can be a web app on iOS and iPadOS, there's a brand new HTML element for visionOS, CSS anchor positioning for popovers is supported as well as scroll-driven animations, and much more. Suffice it to say, Safari's got some slick new features under the hood. The jury is still very much out on the gooey, glassmorphic UI design that Apple also unveiled at WWDC, however.The Browser Company, who made the niche, but well liked Arc browser, has been working on a new AI-first browser called Dia, and this week it's available early access for Arc Members. At first glance Dia feels similar to other “agentic” browsers, giving users a chat input and the ability to chat about content in tabs or links, but it also shows off skills like connecting to calendars to schedule meetings or composing text that can be inserted into emails. We'll report back after we've had a chance to test Dia out for a bit.Chapter markers:1:00 - void0's Rolldown-Vite5:52 - Safari 26 beta21:26 - Dia, the new AI-browser from The Browser Company29:38 - Cursor raises $900 million Links:Paige - void0's Rolldown-ViteJack - Dia, the new AI-browser from The Browser CompanyTJ - Safari 26 betaLightning News:Cursor raises $900 millionWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Paradise TV seriesJack - Ballerina movie TJ - Apple Vision Pro on The Price is RightThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

OpenAI has a new API in beta called the Realtime API, which enables speech conversations with LLMs. Real-time text and audio processing means users can have conversations with voice agents and voice-enabled apps, and OpenAI makes it simple to connect via WebRTC or WebSockets.Several months ago, The Browser Company, abruptly announced they were stopping work on Arc browser in favor of building a completely new, AI-first browser called Dia. Now, the company's CEO has released a letter detailing why these decisions were made and what the future holds for The Browser Company. Details on Dia are vague, but the team is optimistic they can build “a true successor to the browser”.AI-enabled coding IDE Cursor hit v1.0, this week with a bunch of notable features. Notable highlights in this release include: BugBot, which automatically reviews PRs and identifies bugs and issues, Background Agent (Cursor's remote coding agent) for all users, Memories to help Cursor remember facts and conversations within projects for future use, and one-click MCP install and OAuth support.Timestamps:1:10 - OpenAI's realtime agent API10:03 - The Browser Company Kills Arc16:53 - Cursor 1.028:04 - Codex gets internet access31:09 - React Router's open governance34:18 - Fire Starter39:55 - What's making us happyNews:Paige - Cursor 1.0Jack - OpenAI's Realtime Agent for AI chatTJ - The Browser Company stops developing ArcLightning News:React Router Open GovernanceCodex gets access to the internetFire Starter:console.log formatting stringsWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Clarkson's Farm season 4Jack - Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 headphonesTJ - Rotary cheese graterThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

It's been 4 years since TypeScript schema validation library Zod released v3, but the new v4 release makes it worth the wait. Expect faster parsing times across the board, built in error pretty-printing, and even a tree-shakeable API called Zod Mini for constrained environments like edge runtimes.There's a new npm-based CLI tool for managing and sharing AI rules across different editors and tools called vibe-rules. In addition to saving favorite prompts so they can be applied to any supported editor, vibe-rules can also automatically install prompts shared in a project's NPM packages into an editor's configuration. It's early days yet, but a great idea to make prompts easier for anyone to use.Angular v20 is out with some much anticipated highlights. Stabilized signal-based APIs, incremental hydration, custom Angular reporting directly in Chrome DevTools, GenAI development advancements, and, last but not least, a RFC for an official Angular mascot. Not to bias you, but we favor the pink, dice-shaped mascot around here.In this episode:1:10 - Zod v45:50 - vibe-rules15:12 - Angular 2027:03 - Remix v331:32 - Stack Overflow's Annual Dev Survey38:02 - Firefox and Temporal39:15 - Bolt's hackathon statusNews:Paige - Zod v4Jack - vibe-rulesTJ - Angular 20Lightning News:Remix v3 updatesFirefox is the first browser to support Temporal (Temporal on MDN)StackOverflow's Annual Dev Survey is out nowBolt's hackathon startsWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Annual Gloucestershire cheese rolling race and Wiki historyJack - The Portland Pickles baseball gameTJ - StoryGraph and The God of the WoodsThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

This week both Google and Microsoft held conferences where they announced all the new, great AI breakthroughs, but there were a few other notable, web dev-focused pieces in between. VS Code announced it will be open sourcing the GitHub Copilot Chat extension, refactoring relevant components into its core codebase, as the next logical step “in making VS Code an open source AI editor.”Microsoft has floated a new idea called “NLWeb” to make it easier for websites to turn themselves into AI apps using an LLM model and their own data. While this sounds interesting, it's very early days yet and is not ready for prime time.A blog post from Remix creator Ryan Florence leaked earlier this week, and in it, Ryan shares that Remix v3 will move away from using React. The usual criticisms of React are present, and so Remix v3 will be completely new with a focus on a framework that's AI friendly and leveraging all the Web APIs available today. News:VS Code is open sourcing its AI chat extensionRemix's “Declaration of Independence” blog leakedAnd Microsoft introduces yet another AI standardLightning News:Satya Nadella and podcastsIntroducing Claude 4 What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Daredevil: Born Again TV seriesJack -  Baseball team Portland Pickles' Red Head Appreciation NightTJ - The Philadelphia Inquirer's summer reading listThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

CTO and co-founder of Apollo, Matt DeBergalis, joins us on this episode to talk about how GraphQL has continued to evolve over time, and how Apollo is focused on making it more accessible for developers and AI agents than ever before.For those less familiar with Apollo and GraphQL, Matt shares the history of both, including lessons he learned from founding the company Meteor that helped him while building Apollo.We discuss how even though GraphQL is making less headlines than it was a few years ago, it's really begun to find its niche within larger organizations that have hundreds or even thousands of APIs and databases underpinning their many applications, and how Apollo has continued to evolve so that it can support APIs, serverless functions, and SQL- or no SQL-databases, with little extra code needed to make these different data sources work together.Matt also highlights the benefits of a GraphQL schema for AI agents and MCP servers, sharing how the agents are generally very good at parsing the schemas and understanding how to leverage queries against the interface to retrieve the data they need. While we've had tech stacks in the past like LAMP and MERN, this new addition of AI to the development mix provides a unique opportunity to redefine the stack once more, and GraphQL could be a very good piece to include.Special GuestMatt DeBergalis, CTO and co-founder of ApolloRelevant Links:Apollo GraphQL websiteApollo GraphQL YouTubeApollo GraphQL LinkedInApollo GraphQL on XMatt on GitHubMatt on XMatt on MediumMatt on LinkedInWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Pitt TV seriesTJ - I Think I Was MurderedMatt - Teaching my daughter to ride a bikeThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

TanStack, a collection of popular open-source software libraries, is back in the news cycle this week with the announcement of TanStack DB. TanStack DB extends TanStack Query with collections, live queries, and optimistic UI mutations to keep UIs reactive, consistent, and lightning fast.VS Code marks its 100th release of v1 with updates like: enabling Next Edit Suggestions (NES) be default, adding custom instructions and reusable prompts for a chat agent inside a project's .github folder, and new tools at the AI agent's disposal for better results.There's a new component library available called Basecoat UI that claims to bring the magic of shadcn/ui with no React required. No matter if a website's built using HTML, Flask, Rails, or another JS framework, Basecoat uses HTML and Tailwind, and a hint of Alpine.js when needed, to provide accessible, modern components that are also compatible with shadcn/ui themes.News:Paige - Basecoat UI - framework agnostic component libraryJack - TanStack DBTJ - VS Code 1.100Bonus News:Apparently we should all just f'ing use HTMLParcel v2.15 jumps on the Rust bandwagonGoogle is testing a new “AI Mode”Google's logo changeMax once again becomes HBO MaxWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - House of Earth and Blood (#1 in Crescent City series) Jack -  Grand Sumo May 2025 TournamentTJ - Coast of MichiganThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

Node is back in the news with some noteworthy updates as v24 drops. It gets an upgrade to 13.6 for its V8 JavaScript engine, runs with npm version 11, and has more efficient implementation of the local storage API and test runner updates.Google has released its newest version of its Gemini AI model: Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview (I/O Edition), which claims to be the best model for front-end and UI development. To prove it, Google links to a site called the WebDev Arena (where Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview ranks #1), that lets users put in a prompt and then pits different AI models head to head to build a site based on the prompt. Figma just had their 2025 Config conference and unveiled a host of new offerings, including Figma Sites that lets folks design, prototype and publish with Figma, and Figma Make the AI prompting tool that can add functionality to a Figma mockup via natural language directions.News:Paige - Node 24 updatesJack - Figma Make and Figma Sites and conference demo videoTJ - Gemini 2.5 updates and WebDev ArenaBonus News:Take the first annual State of Devs surveyOpenAI agrees to buy Windsurf for $3BFire Starters:CSS reading-flow and reading-orderWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Old Town Trolley ToursJack -  The Residence TV showTJ - ChatGPT helping with camera & video setupThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

The React team's been on a roll lately with new experimental updates. Last episode we covered  View Transitions, and today we discuss Activity. Activity is a component to hide and show parts of the UI while maintaining the component's state and continuing to render at a lower priority when it's not visible on screen.Storybook 9 beta is out now, and it seems to be transitioning from a frontend workshop for building UI components in isolation to a one-stop shop for all your frontend testing needs.And Microsoft recently released a paper from researchers at Cambridge and Carnegie Mellon studying how AI coding assistants have allowed developers to engage in less critical thinking and independent problem-solving, and how the skills to do both could deteriorate if this over-reliance on AI continues unchecked.News:Paige - Storybook 9 betaJack - React TJ - The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking and Avoiding Skill Atrophy in the Age of AIBonus News:Ladybird new independent web browserMTMC-16Apple changes App Store rules to allow external purchasesWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Night Manager seriesJack - RaycastTJ - Linkin Park World TourThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

Signals has been gaining in popularity the past few years for its fine-grained approach to reactivity in the browser, and a new high performance implementation called Alien Signals has landed in Vue.js. It offers significant performance improvements to complex applications with lots of data changes, and has been extended so it can be used in other JS-based libraries besides Vue. The React team announces that React Compiler has reached release candidate (RC) stage and is nearing stable release territory. React Compiler is a build-time tool that optimizes React apps through automatic memoization so devs don't have to worry about including useMemo() and useCallback() hooks in their code.RedwoodSDK, which had some cryptic messaging about its future last month, has unveiled more of the story on its new website this month. It's aiming to be part of the “personal software revolution” by providing a React framework for Cloudflare, offering built in access to Cloudflare Workers, databases and storage, queues, AI, and more.News:Paige - RedwoodSDK details revealedJack - Alien SignalsTJ - React Compiler RCBonus News:Everybody wants to buy ChromeWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Severance TV series season 2Jack - Grilling seasonTJ - Detroit grows in population for the first time in decadesThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

The AI hype train keeps chugging along with new updates from OpenAI. ChatGPT now offers GPT-4.1 - a new dev-first model trained for use cases related to coding, instruction following, and function calling with a context window of up to 1 million tokens. It also announces Codex CLI, a terminal version of ChatGPT that devs can use to run code, manipulate files, and iterate without ever leaving their preferred terminal.Next.js 15.3 drops with new features like using its Turbopack buildpack for production builds (still in alpha stage so use with caution), community support for Rspack as a drop in replacement for the Webpack bundler, and new navigation hooks for enhanced client-side routing capabilities.There's also a new survey out this week: the first annual State of Web Dev AI, which answers questions like which AI tools devs find most useful, how much devs are spending on AI, and what pain points are devs most likely to encounter when leveraging AI to develop their own web apps.News:Paige - OpenAI Codex CLI and GPT-4.1 modelsJack - State of AI Web Dev 2025TJ - Next.js 15.3Bonus News:OpenAI is in talks to acquire Windsurf for $3B“Slopsquatting”AI agents for everyone (Firebase Studio), (Arduino AI Assistant)Fire Starter:Declarative Web PushWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Solo Leveling anime seriesJack - Knuckles TV mini series TJ - NY Times FlashbackThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

Google announces a new Agent2Agent protocol meant to support AI agents communicating with each other. A2A aims to  complement MCP and address the challenges of deploying large-scale, multi-agent systems from various providers across different platforms and cloud environments.GitHub Copilot's new code review feature is now generally available. Just like you'd assign a coworker to review a PR, users can now assign a Copilot agent to review that same PR and spot bugs, identify potential performance problems, and suggest fixes.RedwoodJS has rebranded itself RedwoodSDK, and is focusing on a new framework that will become the foundation of a personal software revolution. RedwoodSDK promises modern serverless infrastructure, AI-driven dev tools, and open ecosystems, with more details coming soon.News:Paige - RedwoodJS becomes RedwoodSDKJack - Google's A2ATJ - Copilot code reviews & premium requestsBonus News:StackBlitz is hosting the world's largest hackathonDevin 2.0Wordpress.com launches free AI-powered website builderFire Starter:text-wrap: prettyWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Claude AIJack - The Accountant 2 movieTJ - Apple SportsThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

The tRPC team declares v11 officially production-ready. tRPC allows devs to build typesafe APIs with types that can be shared on the client and server, and now it has support for TanStack Query v5, the ability to send and receive non-JSON data content types, improved support for RSCs, and the ability to stream responses.After the Next.js security incident a few weeks back, Netlify writes an open letter around the challenges Next.js poses when not hosted on Vercel. It raises valid points like a lack of adapters, no production grade documentation for serverless deployments, no visible roadmap or release schedule, and a disregard for open web standards, among others.Firefox is finally adding support for progressive web apps (PWAs), but its web app support will intentionally not look, feel, or behave the same way similar features do in other browsers.News:Paige - tRPC v11Jack - Firefox will support PWAs (finally)TJ - Next.js Netlify deployment dramaBonus News:Styled-components enter maintenance modeNew Bare JS runtimeWindsurf and Netlify partnership (and docs on the feature)What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Squeeze Me novelJack - Pickup Music siteTJ - Mario Kart WorldThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

Special guests Burke Holland and Harald Kirschner from Microsoft join us on this episode to share the new GitHub Copilot features coming to VS Code and beyond.First up: agent mode is now available to all users in VS Code. GitHub Copilot gets a serious upgrade as it can now create new apps from scratch, handle complex changes to existing code across multiple files, run (and debug) tests from the command line, and guide you through its reasoning. Additionally, VS Code and GH Copilot now offer MCP (model context protocol) for agent mode. This means that GitHub Copilot can use context tools and services while building an application. There's a host of already available community-standard MCP servers available on github.com or devs can build their own and GH Copilot will be able to use it to enhance its knowledge and capabilities.Next Edit Suggestions (NES) lands in GH Copilot as well, so when devs make one change to a file Copilot predicts the changes that follow and presents them in sequence. Not only are ghost-text suggestions faster to appear to users in VS Code, but Copilot is also better at understanding what other changes are needed to support the new code.Special Guests:Burke Holland, Principal Developer Advocate at Microsoft running the VS Code developer community teamHarald Kirschner, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft for VS Code and GitHub CopilotRelevant Links:VS Code Timeline viewBurke's WebsiteBurke on GitHubBurke on TwitterBurke on YouTubeBurke on TikTokBurke on LinkedInHarald's WebsiteHarald on GitHubHarald on TwitterHarald on LinkedInWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Apple AirPods Pro Gen 2Jack - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3TJ - Trip to the Grand Canyon and Zion National ParkBurke - Insta 360 webcamHarald - Springtime in CAThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

Next.js had a security vulnerability scare last week due to an internal header in its middleware that allowed for skipping middleware (like auth validation) before reaching routes. The Next.js team responded quickly and patched the security holes, but this serves as a reminder to stay vigilant, keep dependencies updated, and implement multiple layers of security.Michael Jackson, co-founder of Remix and React Router, is calling it quits for Remix support React Server Components. Lots of React-based frameworks built prior to RSCs have been struggling to support the new paradigm shift - and lots of devs have bemoaned the fact because of the added complexity it introduces, and MJ is over it. This isn't the first time framework authors have made bold claims to not support new breaking changes, so we'll have to wait and see if he sticks to it.Rsdoctor, a build analyzer tool by ByteDance, has hit v1.0. Rsdoctor goes beyond other build analysis tools offering a visual view of the build process and smart analysis to help dev teams identify bottlenecks, optimize performance, and improve overall engineering quality.News:Paige - Rsdoctor 1.0 is available nowJack - Remix bailing on RSC?TJ - Next.js's security vulnerabilityBonus News:Redwood JS enters maintenance modeBrowser Use Raises $17MFire Starters:CSS interpolate-size: allow-keywordsWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Mythic Quest TV seriesJack - Relearning guitar and the Katana Go headphone ampTJ - Open AI image generation and Studio GhibliThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

Web app bundler Parcel adds support for React Server Components, including a repo of example apps for developers to reference. Although not specifically aimed at framework developers it seems like that's the audience that would benefit most from this new feature in Parcel.CodeSandbox enters the AI game by teaming up with AI hosting platform Together AI, and launching CodeSandbox SDK. CodeSandbox SDK will allow developers to programmatically spin up AI sandboxes just like they can spin up microVMs today to run web app sandboxes in the cloud on CodeSandbox.io. Netlify inks a deal to become the official deployment partner of TanStack Start. Deploying TanStack projects on Netlify will mean: no config files needed, access to Netlify serverless functions, the reliability of Netlify's global edge network, and the developer tools we know and love like instant previews and automated workflows.News:Paige - CodeSandbox joins Together AI and launches CodeSandbox SDKJack - Parcel RSCsTJ - TanStack + Netlify PartnershipBonus News:Google Acquires Wiz for $32 billionOxlint Beta is ready to replace ESLintWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Formula 1: Drive to Survive S7 Jack - Mushroom outdoor solar lightsTJ - Michael Jordan-shaped Cheeto up for auctionThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

The TypeScript Compiler (TSC) is getting a major port to Go. Go's support for concurrency and efficient memory management convinced the Microsoft team to port the code over and should result in as much as 10x faster builds in the future. Expect a feature-complete implementation towards the end of 2025, and the first major release of the native compiler to be TS 7.0 after that.OpenAI has released new APIs to make building agentic apps even simpler. A new Response API, built in tools like web search and file search, an Agents SDK to orchestrate agent workflows, and observability tools to trace and inspect those workflows round out the offerings for empowering autonomous agents to accomplish more tasks.Developer Aiden Bai's back in the news with a new site called same.dev that claims to “one-shot” clone any site. Just enter a site URL into the input and it will return React, Tailwind, and Shadcn UI code. It's pretty unreal.News:Paige - OpenAI: New Tools for Building AgentsJack - same.dev TJ - TypeScript ports compiler to Go for 10x faster buildsBonus News:Apple delays upgraded SiriFire Starters:HTML Data List elementWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Under desk heated footrestJack - Jamstik Standard MIDI GuitarTJ - Charizard CheetoThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

The Tanner-verse expands again, as TanStack Form announces v1 just two years after Tanner Linsley began work on it. Out of the gate, TanStack Form supports React, Vue, Angular, Solid, and Lit. ByteDance (yes, that ByteDance) has released a React Native competitor named Lynx. Lynx is a new JavaScript framework that allows you to write apps that run across iOS, Android, and the Web, and it's already being used in production TikTok apps.VS Code's February release had some major AI highlights this month. Preview access to the latest ChatGPT 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 3.7 models for GH Copilot, the ability to attach images, GH problems, and entire folders for context, and improvements to Agent Mode. News:Paige - VS Code Feb highlightsJack - TanStack Form hits v1TJ - LynxBonus News:Tailwind UI becomes Tailwind PlusVibecodingFire Starters:Invoker Commands APIWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Visiting Greenville, SCJack - Prime Target TV seriesTJ - Pokémon GOThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

Special announcement: Please take our listener survey so we can better tailor the podcast to your interests.The web development world can't seem to get enough of surveys, so we've got the first State of AI 2025 to announce in this week's episode. The folks behind this survey are the same ones who run State of JS, State of CSS, State of HTML, and more. Take 15 minutes to let them know what AI models you prefer, which code assistants you use, and what annoys you about the state of AI today.Along the same lines, Anthropic just released Claude Sonnet 3.7 and Claude Code. Claude Sonnet's become a favorite model in the programming world and 3.7 introduces the first hybrid model that can produce near instant response or extended, thoughtful responses, depending on what the user wants. Claude Code is Anthropic's first agentic coding tool in the form of a CLI that can search and read code, edit files, run tests, and commit code to GitHub.Jack's drop in replacement for the deprecated Create React App, create-tsrouter-app, now offers Solid JS support, add-ons like including Sentry or Tailwind CSS in a new project, and model context protocol (MCP) support for AI coding assistants to interact with the application.News:Paige - State of AI survey 2025Jack - create-tsrouter-app updates (Solid, add-ons, MCP support)TJ - Claude Sonnet 3.7 and Claude CodeBonus News:Bonus News:First impressions of Bolt.new + Exporeact-scan 0.2React ExplorerWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Breville InFizz AquaJack - Adrian's Digital Basement YT channelTJ - ClaudePlaysPokemonThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

Special announcement: Please take our listener survey so we can better tailor the podcast to your interests.The parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, has just released TraeAI, the newest entrant to the AI-enhanced IDE wars. Trae is also a fork of the VS Code IDE and offers many of the same AI features of competitors Windsurf and Cursor: chats, autocomplete, etc.Recently we reported the React team agreed to deprecate starter React repo Create React App due to changes in React 19 breaking the project. Well, our very own Jack Herrington collaborated with the TanStack team to create a drop-in replacement called create-tsrouter-app that builds TanStack Router based SPA applications to give folks who previously used CRA a better option in today's world.Bolt.new, the browser-based AI agent continues to make news announcing a new integration with native app development framework Expo. Now, users can describe to Bolt what sort of mobile app they want in natural language, preview the code in real time on any platform, and refine their vision by chatting with the agent, and finally deploying it to the app store.News:Paige - Bolt.new & Expo integrate to build mobile apps with AI Jack - Jack's very own Create React App replacement: create-tsrouter-appTJ - TraeAIBonus News:Microsoft Says It Has Created a New State of MatterESLint supports CSS lintingFire Starters:CSS text-box-trimWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Drop Stop car seat gap fillerJack - 3D printingTJ - Onyx StormThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

Please take our listener survey so we can better tailor the podcast to your interests.It's only mid-February and already the State of React survey results for 2024 are in! Unsurprisingly Next.js continues to dominate as the most used React-based framework and Tailwind CSS tops the charts when it comes to CSS tools and libraries.TypeScript 5.8 beta brings TypeScript syntax one step closer to being a first-class citizen in the Node runtime. Node 23.6 unflagged experimental support for running TS files directly, but certain TS constructs like enums, import aliases and a few other things just aren't supported. TS 5.8 beta introduces the –eraseabeSyntaxOnly flag, which will allow users to only write TS constructs that can be erased from a Node file, and will issue an error if it encounters constructs that can't be erased cleanly.Vercel's AI tool v0 can now import Tailwind config and Figma files. Now, designs begun in Figma can be imported to v0 to refine without the friction of design-to-code translation and custom font weights and colors can be added to directly from a custom Tailwind config file.News:Paige - TypeScript 5.8's –eraseableSyntaxOnly flagJack - v0 can now import Tailwind config and Figma filesTJ - State of React 2024 survey resultsBonus News:Angular: The DocumentaryAstro 5.2Fire Starters:CSS hanging-punctuationWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - A Man on the Inside TV seriesJack - Strings of bee lightsTJ - Heated glovesThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

The latest wrinkle for AI coding assistant tools like Cursor and Windsurf is known as the Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP is an open protocol that allows users to provide custom tools and services to agentic LLMs like calling a third party weather service.In further AI news, OpenAI has introduced a new deep research agent designed to conduct multi-step research on the internet for complex tasks. Just give it a prompt requiring research, like which model of washing machine to buy, and ChatGPT will find, analyze, and synthesize hundreds of online sources to create a comprehensive report at the level of a research analyst.And as it turns out, the upgrade to React 19 broke React's own Create React App (CRA) starter repo and the community wants it fixed and deprecated, as it's no longer the recommended way to build a new React project in the docs. Mark Erikson, of Redux fame, opens a GitHub issue in the repo suggesting updates and solutions and the official acquiesces to fix the repo for now, and deprecate it in the docs.News:Paige - OpenAI introduces deep research agentJack - Model Context Protocol (MCP) on Cursor and WindsurfTJ - Create React App and React 19 (and here's the issue to add Astro to the React docs)Bonus News:Dan Abramov leaves BlueskyOracle v. Deno trademark updateGitHub Copilot introduces agents with Copilot EditsFire Starters:CSS position stickyWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Handheld compressed air dusterJack - Finishing LED movie poster RPi projectTJ - Cannondale Topstone bikeThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

A new challenger to rival OpenAI's best ChatGPT model has arisen from China named DeepSeek R1. The reason it's causing even more of a stir is because the creators claim DeepSeek R1 was trained for under $5M - a mere fraction of the cost of comparable models to date - and they've open sourced the code, the models, all of it.In the same vein, both TJ and Paige had the chance to try out AI coding assistant Devin.ai firsthand last week. Devin is best described as an energetic junior programmer, and while it offers unique ways of interacting with it: Slack threads, PR comments, and has oversight over multiple repos so it can be asked to do things like compare documentation in one repo to SDK endpoints in another repo, its end value is still questionable.TypeScript validation libraries have been catching on in recent years, and the creators of some of the most popular ones (Zod, ArkType, and Valibot) have gotten together to promote a common interface for libraries called Standard Schema.News:Paige - Standard Schema promotes a common interface for TypeScript validation librariesJack - DeepSeek R1TJ - Our firsthand experiences with Devin.ai and jokes about AI trained coding assistantsBonus News:Matt Biilman coins the next big term in web dev experience: AX (“agent experience”)Vercel acquires dashboard and chart library TremorHas the “Rust wave” crested?Fire Starters:toReversed, toSorted, and toSplicedWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Recruit TV seriesJack - The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ckTJ - Onyx StormThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

This week, the team behind JavaScript runtime Bun drops some major updates into Bun 1.2. Bun introduces a built-in S3 storage API, a built-in Postgres client (with MySQL coming soon), 90% compatibility with Node.js, and it's faster than ever before.Tailwind CSS v4 is out as well, and it boasts a new higher performance engine for 5x faster full builds, support for cutting edge CSS features like cascade layers, custom properties, and container queries, a simplified initial install and config to get going, and a first-party Vite plugin.And React Scan, built by Aiden Bai who also built Million.js, is also out this week with v0.1. Install React Scan into any React app and it will auto detect performance issues due to excessive re-rendering, and highlight the components causing the issues.News:Paige - Tailwind CSS v4.0Jack - React Scan 0.1 (aka Million.js)TJ - Bun 1.2Bonus News:StargateOpenAI's new Operator AI agent can do things on the web for youFire Starters:Link to text fragments with #:~:text=What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Puzzles (like the ones from Buffalo Games)Jack - Klipsch G-17 air wireless speakerTJ - Not So Super, AppleThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

The first topic of conversation this week is an unexpected new area the Expo team is tackling: Expo Application Service Hosting. EAS Hosting is a new service for quickly deploying web projects built using Expo and React Native apps. It makes it easy to compile and sign apps with custom native code, upload apps to the Play Store or App Store, and push live app updates directly to users.The Interop project, which aims to improve interoperability between major browser engines, released its accomplishments from 2024 this week. The browsers took on 17 areas of focus in 2024, and went from 46% of tests passing in January, all the way to 95% of tests passing by the end of December.WordPress makes headlines once more, as Autommatic, the WordPress hosting company owned by WP creator Matt Mullenweg cuts its contributions back on the WP open-source project from 4,000 hours per week to 45 hours per week.News:Paige - Interop 2024 highlightsJack - Expo APIs (EAS Hosting)TJ - Automattic cuts WordPress contribution hours (WordPress Drama Timeline)Bonus News:Vitest 3.0 is outThe iPhone Air could be coming later this yearFire Starters:WebXR Device APIWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Shrinking TV show and browser-based SwaggerEditorJack - fzf command-line fuzzy finderTJ - Switch 2Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

This episode begins with a cautionary tale to double check your browser extensions. Popular coupon browser extension Honey's been caught replacing affiliate links with its own tracking codes right before checkout, as well as applying pre-selected discount codes from its business partners that aren't always the best deals.A few weeks ago we reported Deno is petitioning Oracle to release the JavaScript trademark as Oracle's never used it since acquiring it when it bought Sun Microsystems. This week Oracle has informed Deno they won't voluntarily withdraw their trademark on JavaScript, and are lawyering up.And the creator of HashiCorp has built a new terminal emulator called Ghostty that's getting a lot of buzz lately. Ghostty is written in Zig and uses platform native UI and GPU acceleration for an ultra fast terminal experience. It's got all the expected features like split screen, key commands, and support for programs like Neovim, and is worth a shot if you're interested in trying a new terminal competitor.News:Paige - Ghostty terminal emulator and app settings GUIJack - Honey browser extension scandalTJ - Oracle plans to fight Deno's petition for them to release the JavaScript trademarkBonus News:Node's experimental type stripping is now enabled by defaultFire Starters:Broadcast Channel APIWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Lies of Locke Lamora novelJack - Home automation and the Hue lighting APITJ - CES! Featuring things like SwippittThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

To start us off, the State of JS 2024 survey results were recently released, and there's lots of interesting stats to share. Vite continues to be the most loved framework and build tool amongst all JS devs, React continues to be the most used framework amongst JS devs at work, and SvelteKit and Astro are the two meta frameworks JS devs are most interested in trying out. Fun fact: 67% of respondents say they use ChatGPT to help them write code, but estimate only 12 - 20% of their code in a project is AI-assisted.In keeping with the AI trend, VS Code announced a fee plan for GitHub Copilot: no trial, no subscription, no credit card required. Limits apply, but it's a great opportunity for devs who aren't sure if Copilot is worth the cost to try it out.Shadcn has also released its new resource site Awesome Shadcn UI. The site contains 13 categories, 200 resources, and lots of useful links to templates, UI libraries, components, color customizations, animations, and more. News:Paige - State of JS 2024 survey resultsJack - Shadcn UI design system resourcesTJ - Announcing a free GitHub Copilot for VS CodeBonus News:Matt Mullenweg imposes a “holiday break” on WordPress and asks Redditors what other drama he should create in 2025Fire Starters:Clipboard APIWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Tulsa King TV seriesJack - Hue Play HDMI sync box 8KTJ - Updating my blogThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

We wrap up the podcast with an end of year holiday spectacular episode! Instead of the usual news, the hosts share the biggest front end stories of 2024, the most fascinating developments, and the moments that made us happiest.Thank you, Front-End Fire listeners! We couldn't have done this without you. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season, and we can't wait to bring you more frontend goodness in 2025.Biggest Story of the Year for Frontend Devs:Paige - Vite and void(0)Jack - React 19 drama and delaysTJ - The rise in AI tooling, and how we move forward with itMost Interesting Story of 2024:Paige - Apple's not-so-great year: Apple Vision Pro, EU legal issues, Apple Intelligence Jack - AI app builders: v0, bolt.new, etc.TJ - Wordpress DramaWhat Made You Happy in 2024:Paige - Consistent practice of hobbiesJack - Growing this podcast and quality time with friends and familyTJ - Getting back into readingThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

In our last news episode of the year, we share that React 19 is declared stable, just in time for the holidays. It's been a long road from release candidate in April to stability now, but it was well worth the wait. React 19 is packing a lot of features, including: Actions, hooks, form actions, the new use API, and of course, React Server Components and Server Actions.OpenAI's been busy as well, introducing ChatGPT Pro, its $200 a month subscription for unlimited access to OpenAI o1 (the “reasoning model), GPT-4o, and Advanced Voice mode. Additionally, the startup announced the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS can now read code in a handful of developer-focused coding apps, like VS Code, XCode, Terminal, and iTerm2.There's a new challenger to Figma for styling React-based code bases called Onlook. Onlook is a browser-based product studio that lets you design React code with Tailwind CSS using an easy-to-use interface just like you would in Figma.News:Paige - Onlook, the power Figma in your React appJack - React 19 is stableTJ - OpenAI announcements: ChatGPT Pro and Work With AppsBonus News:Quantum Computing Inches Closer to RealityiOS 18.2 and Apple IntelligenceFire Starters:Customizable Selects (Wes Bos video)What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Black Doves TV series and The Midnight Feast bookJack - Seestar-S50 All-in-one smart telescopeTJ - Christmas Village in Grand Rapids, MIThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

The new JavaScript package manager and serverless registry vlt debuted recently, promising to be a drop-in replacement for existing package managers like npm with additional offerings like a dependency query syntax selector and GUI experience for dependency graphs.Vite 6.0 released this week, and its biggest improvement is the new experimental Environment API. The Environment API is designed so that framework authors can create as many environments as they need within a single Vite server so they can map the way their apps work in production. Astro 5.0 also enters primetime with Astro Content Layers that loads content from any source, Server Islands to combine cached, static content with dynamic content, simplified prerendering, and Vite 6 support (using the new Environment API, mentioned in the last paragraph).News:Paige - Vite 6.0 is outJack - Astro 5.0 releaseTJ - vlt Client and Serverless RegistryBonus News:Deno v. Oracle: Canceling the JavaScript TrademarkGenAIScriptFire Starters:Details disclosure HTML elementWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Diplomat TV seriesJack - Retaining your thumbs thanks to SawStopTJ - Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and StoryGraph book trackerThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

Co-host Jack Herrington is just back from the React Summit conference in New York and he shares some of the highlights of the conf, including the announcement that TanStack Start is now in beta status and Tanner Linsely (the creator of the TanStack products) will be working on it full time.Additionally, React-based animation library Framer Motion announces it has spun off into open source library Motion. Going forward, Motion will provide vanilla JS APIs so every JavaScript project can take advantage of the smooth, easy-to-use animations that were previously only available to React applications. The US government's taken aim at Google, asking Google's antitrust trial judge to force the company to sell off its Chrome browser after the judge ruled Google's maintained an illegal search monopoly. These are the dramatic opening shots that will, most likely, become much less contentious than Google actually divesting itself of Chrome when a deal with the DOJ is reached, but it's definitely a warning to other large tech companies to watch their market share.As a final note, we won't be recording a show next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, but will be back after that with all the latest news.News:Paige - Framer Motion becomes just MotionJack - TanStack Start is in beta statusTJ - US proposes breakup of Google to fix search monopolyBonus News:The State of JS survey 2024 is now openAI tool calling is the next big thingFire Starters:scrollIntoView()What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Stubby car drying nozzle leaf blower attachmentJack - Air tag-enabled water bottle lidTJ - Silver Bells in LansingThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

We kick off this week's episode with news that React Native framework Expo now has a developer preview of universal React Server Components. For the first time ever, you can use React Server Components & Server Actions in native apps. In a controversial move, Amazon has mandated all employees must return to offices by Jan 2025. The hosts discuss the pros and cons of working from the office vs remote, and speculate this is just another way for Amazon to conduct layoffs without actually laying more employees off.CSS masonry, a long yearned for feature, gets closer to reality. The Google Chrome and Apple WebKit teams have differing opinions about how CSS masonry's syntax should be added to the spec (reuse CSS grid or create a whole new layout property for masonry), and they want devs to weigh in to help make the final decision.News:Paige - CSS masonry layout controversyJack - React Native has beta RSCsTJ - Amazon is making its employees come back to the officeBonus News:CSS gets a new logo that's not a shield! - h/t to Adam Argyle for this breaking newsRegulators causing nuclear power issues for Meta and AmazonWordPress tracking sites leaving WP Engine hostingFire Starters:CSS stretch keywordWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Unreasonable Hospitality bookJack - Lioness TV showTJ - Daisy DarkerThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

The AI race continues with lots of new updates straight from the GitHub Universe conference!New features from GitHub include: the ability to choose different AI models for GitHub Copilot Chat to use (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, etc.), Copilot Workspaces reviewing PRs, suggesting code changes, and validating fixes.In addition to the GH Universe announcements, the October VS Code release has a bunch of new Copilot additions like: Copilot Edits to change multiple files at once, Copilot Chat in a secondary sidebar, and Copilot code reviews before committing to GitHub.Next.js's caching, which defaulted to very aggressive in the past, has been updated big time in Next.js 15. Now, when devs add a request that fetches external data, they'll be prompted to either wrap it in a Suspense tag or explicitly mark the module or function with the “use cache” directive. This gives devs more fine grained cache control allowing some routes to have dynamic, Suspense-supported data, while others have static, cached data.In bonus news, the open source Flutter community decided to fork the project because it feels Google's core Flutter team doesn't have enough resources internally and isn't fast enough at reviewing PRs and implementing new features. “Flock” aims to add the bug fixes, popular community features, and generally be faster and more agile than Flutter.And today's Fire Starter is about HTTP/3: the newest revision of the HTTP which offers better speed, security, and reliability.News:Paige - GitHub Spark and GitHub Universe updates in generalJack - use cache changes in Next.js 15TJ - VS Code 1.95Bonus News:Flutter gets forked to FlockFire Starters:HTTP/3What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - All Recipe's Trends pageJack - Phone security cordTJ - The Will of the Many book series and Kindle e-readerThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

In a special guest episode, Rob Eisenberg joins the podcast to talk about the role web components play in today's web development ecosystem. Rob is uniquely qualified to discuss web components, as the former architect for Microsoft's web component tech stack, FAST, used by about 1,500 internal MSFT teams, and creator of the Web Component Engineering course. Special Guest(s):Rob Eisenberg, Founder and Chief Software Architect at Blue Spire, former architect for Microsoft's FAST Web Components technology, creator of the Web Component Engineering course, and Web Standards advocate. Rob on Twitter @EisenbergEffectRob's Web Component Engineering courseRob on LinkedInRob on GitHubRob on MediumWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Da Vinci Eye appTJ - GitHub Copilot updatesRob - Buttermilk PancakesThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

Jack is away this week speaking at the React Advanced conference in London, so be sure to check out his recorded talk (and all the others) about if React is really dying.For the news this week, we've got a bunch of interesting topics, the first of which is the latest release of Next.js: Next 15. It's stable and production ready offering React 19 and React Compiler (experimental) support, Turbopack Dev, improvements to caching, and a change to async Request APIs that will allow for simplified rendering and caching in the future. Svelte 5 is also officially stable and production ready debuting the new Runes system which offers Svelte users fine-grained reactivity control via Signals. Svelte previously relied on the compiler for reactivity, which could begin to break down for larger apps, so it was rewritten from the ground up and Runes was born.Finally, vote for this podcast in the State of React survey out now! We're under the Resources > Podcasts section and would greatly appreciate your support.News:Paige - Svelte 5 is aliveTJ - Next 15Jack's React Advanced talkBonus News:Vote for this podcast in the State of React survey (section Resources > Podcasts)!The Browser Company who built Arc is now building another new browserUnderwater server updateApple Vision Pro manufacturing cutbackThe confusing state of Apple IntelligenceAnthropic's latest AI update can use a computer on its ownFire Starters:backdrop-filterWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - MacBook M3 Pro 16”TJ - The Will of the Many & corn mazes

In the new frameworks based on React, we introduce you to One. It is a Vite-powered project claiming to support React web apps and React Native apps all in one.Next, Host Jack Herrington shares an update on how Astro's Server Islands work after trying them out for himself. Similar to React's Suspense components, Astro's Server Islands allow any component that relies on server data to render with a “fallback” (like a loader or skeleton component) in the browser until the data is returned and the full HTML can render.And as we cannot go a week without talking about the latest WordPress and WP Engine drama (listen to our last 3 episodes for full details), the latest kerfuffle involves WordPress seizing control of one of WP Engine's most popular plugins hosted on the WordPress Plugin Directory and pushing a forked version of the plugin that WordPress is in control of under the same name.News:Paige - One, the new React framework built on ViteJack - Astro Server Islands (take 2)TJ - WordPress starts taking over WP Engine pluginsBonus News:Google inks nuclear deal for next-generation reactorsExpress 5 and Zustand 5Fire Starters:What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Trying new things: like a voiceover workshopJack - Hue smart plugsTJ - Only Murders in the Building season 4Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

.io domains have been in vogue for over a decade, but now that the British government has decided to give up sovereignty over the small set of islands in the Indian Ocean that owned that country code on the Internet, it will soon cease to exist. Evan You, of Vue JS and Vite fame, has started a new company VoidZero Inc. to build the next generation toolchain for JavaScript. While trying to make Vite even better, Evan realized he needed a full-time team and funding to build the best toolchain around, and the engineers and investors agreed.StackBlitz enters the AI arena as well with its bolt.new offering, AI-powered software development allowing users to prompt, run, edit, and deploy full-stack web apps directly in the browser.WordPress drama reaches new levels of pettiness with a new checkbox that users must check before signing into their WP accounts swearing they are not affiliated with WP Engine in any way. In happier news, Sentry doubles down on its support for open source software (and the maintainers) by creating the Open Source Pledge where companies who use OSS for profit are encouraged to commit to paying the maintainers of the software they use so that burnout and related security issues can be better addressed.News:Paige - void(0) JavaScript toolingJack - StackBlitz's Bolt.new AI dev toolTJ - The end of .io domainsBonus News:Waymo updateWordPress updateSentry launches the Open Source PledgeSentry itself gave $500k to OS maintainers this yearDeno 2 is officially out!Fire Starters:HTTP QUERYWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power season 2Jack - The Substance movieTJ - Cider millsThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

WP Engine is taking Automattic and Matt Mullenweg to court. The complaints are numerous and juicy: extortion, libel, slander, and include screenshots of text messages, tweets, and emails that look pretty damning against Automattic. The whole story has “Made for TV documentary” written all over it.In slightly less controversial news, React 19 has renamed its Server Actions to Server Functions. This name change brings React's server functions more in line with other frameworks who support the same sort of functionality like SolidJS, Astro, TanStack Start, and others.Also in a follow up from the last episode where we talked about a new addition to the Web Components world allowing for web components with SSR via the Declarative Shadow DOM, a good number of JavaScript framework creators shared their misgivings about the creation of Web Components. Ryan Carniato and Rich Harris were two of the most vocal, and basically said WCs have made their work writing frameworks harder, not easier, and WCs are not the future.News:Paige - Web components are not the future according to JS framework authors Ryan Carniato (Solid JS) and Rich Harris (Svelte JS)Jack - Server Actions become Server Functions in React 19TJ - Wordpress vs. WP Engine drama continuesBonus News:OpenAI raises $6.6 billionWaymo is coming to Austin and AtlantaFire Starters:What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Tourist seriesJack - The Wild Robot movieTJ - Adafruit sensorsThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire and BlueSky.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

This episode kicks off with the new Deno 2 release candidate. V2 boasts improved dependency management, updates to the APIs and CLI, and improved CommonJS support because even though ESM is the future, so much good stuff in the JS ecosystem still runs on CJS. Web Components take a big step forward in terms of wider spread adoption with the adoption of the Declarative Shadow DOM by all major browsers back in August. The Shadow DOM (a Web Components standard) provides a way to scope CSS styles to a specific DOM subtree and isolate the subtree so the element can be reused without fear of script conflicts or unexpected CSS cascades. But it only worked on the client side. The Declarative Shadow DOM removes this limitation and now things like SSR, streaming data, and server rendering styles are possible.Because the web development world can never be without some good drama going down, we now present for your viewing pleasure: the drama between WordPress and WP Engine.News:Paige - Declarative Shadow DOM for Web ComponentsJack - Deno 2 release candidateTJ - Wordpress vs WP Engine dramaBonus News:We're on Bluesky now @front-end-fire.com! Follow us!Cloudflare AI AuditOpenAI departuresState of HTML surveyFire Starters:autocomplete attributeWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Stuff You Should Know podcastJack - Actual typewriters at The Type Space storeTJ - Detroit TigersThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com

Tanner Linsley, creator of TanStack Query and TanStack Router, continues expanding the Tanner-verse with a new TanStack Start framework. It's a full-stack React framework powered by TanStack Router, Vinxi, and Vite, and boasts all the mainstays of a JavaScript framework today, including SSR, streaming, server function support, RPCs, and more. With the release of the new Apple operating system, iOS 18, comes new updates to the Safari browser and its WebKit rendering engine. A couple notable highlights for Safari 18 are “distraction control” where users can hide distracting items on web pages like sign-in banners, cookie preference popups, and newsletter signup overlays, and iPhone mirroring and remote inspection.And the Astro team is at it again with the release of Astro 5.0 beta. This new release introduces the Astro Content Layer, a flexible, extensible way to interact with content in Astro, no matter where it comes from. And for the Fire Starters section of the show this week we learn more about the writingsuggestions attribute. News:Paige - TanStack StartJack - Astro 5.0 Beta ReleaseTJ - WebKit Features in Safari 18.0Bonus News:Next.js SaaS starterFire Starters:writingsuggestions attributeWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Bad Monkey show and Carl Hiaasen books in generalJack - iOS 18 and Sony Alpha 7C II - Full-frame interchangeable Lens Hybrid CameraTJ - Bookshelves Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

Big news this week when it's announced that OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has moved ChatGPT from using Next.js to using Remix. While both metaframeworks rely on React under the hood, Remix seems a bit less opinionated about how teams might want to structure their projects to best suit their unique use cases and needs.TypeScript has also released v5.6, and amongst the many improvements is one many day-to-day TS users will benefit from: disallowed nullish and truthy checks. Although the name sounds impressive and confusing, what it boils down to is: if TS identifies an if statement that will always evaluate to true or false because a dev forgot to actually invoke a function or misplaced parentheses or [insert many, many ways we introduce bugs into our code], TypeScript will now throw an error. Because the JavaScript gods demand at least one new framework or meta-framework each week, this week's tribute is HonoX. We previously discussed new framework Hono back in episode 32, when it debuted as a lightweight framework built on web standards and able to run on any JS runtime, and now it's back with meta-framework HonoX.And the team introduces a new segment this week called Fire Starters. Each week we'll try to find a more obscure bit of HTML, CSS or JS info from around the web, and talk about it so we can all learn something new. The first topic is CSS property initial-letter.News:Paige - HonoX meta-frameworkJack - OpenAI moves ChatGPT from React to RemixTJ - TypeScript 5.6Bonus News:OpenAI o1-previewVinxi is another alternative RSC serverFire Starters:initial-letterWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Offer miniseriesJack - The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series TJ - The Perfect Couple limited seriesThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

Kicking off the discussion is the release of Vue 3.5. Although it's not a major release, Vue 3.5 packs some great new features and optimizations like: reactivity system improvements (up to 56% less memory usage for apps than before), reactive prop destructuring stabilization (it's simpler to declare props with default values), and SSR improvements like lazy hydration for async components.RedwoodJS is also out with a new version, and 8.0 packs a wallop. It makes RedwoodJS the third framework to support React Server Components behind Next.js and Waku.The shadcn CLI has gotten an update as well where it can spin up a brand new Next.js app with shadcn and Tailwind configured and ready to go. Additionally, shadcn has integrated more tightly with Vercel's v0 AI code generator, and now every shadcn component is editable on v0, so users can customize the components in natural language and paste it into their apps afterwards. Pretty amazing!The TC39 Committee responsible for evaluating what new features get added to the JavaScript language has added a new intermediate step for proposals: step 2.7. By the time new proposals reach step 3, they must already have full test suites to support their implementation, and if, for any reason, they must go back to step 2 to rethink things, a lot of that work can be for naught.News:Paige - Vue 3.5 is outJack - RedwoodJS 8.0 and shadcn CLI updatesTJ - JavaScript Standard Gets an Extra StageList of ECMAScript proposals on GitHubBonus News:Laravel raises $57 million series ASSR benchmark wars update (author Matteo is the Fastify lead maintainer)What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - House of the Dragon season 2Jack - Raspberry Pi TJ - Linkin Park is back!Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

We've got a good show for you today! It's chock full of new build tools, better date handling in JavaScript, and SSR benchmarks to prove which framework is truly the fastest.The rust-ification of JavaScript build tools continues, as next generation build tool Rspack hits v1 and claims it's ready for primetime. Rspack boasts (almost) complete compatibility with the webpack API while also being 10x faster.JS dates are about to be fixed thanks to the new Temporal API proposal, which is currently in stage 3 of the TC39 process of adding new features to the JavaScript language.A new benchmark war has erupted online: this time benchmarking which JavaScript SSR frameworks are the fastest. Benchmarking results are dubious at best because everyone's application is different, and has different requirements, but this one got a lot of heat due to the author using an LLM to generate the code to run in these different frameworks (React, Vue, Svelte, Solid, Fastify, etc). Finally, the CSS Survey 2024 is out now! Fill it out, be amazed at how much more there is to CSS than you previously thought, and write in Front-end Fire in the podcast section of the survey if you like our show. We greatly appreciate it!News:Paige - Rspack v1.0Jack - The SSR benchmark wars of 2024 beginTJ - Temporal Dates Coming to JavaScript and temporal polyfillBonus News:CSS Survey 2024 — write in Front-End Fire!What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Photoroom photo editing appJack - 1password password managerTJ - Bench power supplyThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

On this week's episode, a new software licensing term has emerged in the development world: Fair Source Software (FSS). The error and exception tracking software company Sentry added some legal protections to their Codecov product last year (they are a business trying to earn money, after all), which technically meant it was no longer open source. In order to keep sharing its code with the community, Sentry created a new “Fair Source” licensing category that shares similar values to open source, but also allows companies to enforce non-compete clauses to protect its business interests.In other news, even though the React Native framework is already 10 years old, the team just launched v0.75. While this isn't a major release, it lays the groundwork for v1 by reporting that the “new architecture” required for support of new React 18+ features like Suspense, synchronous layouts, and concurrent rendering is now stable.News:Paige - React Native reaches 0.75TJ - Fair Source Software (FSS) licenseWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Origins Crisp Citrus Hand CreamTJ - Risky Business PodcastThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

AI is the main topic of conversation for this week's episode. Between continued advancements in the technology and governments trying to put safeguards in place to prevent a Terminator-style future, there's plenty going on.OpenAI has introduced a new feature of its API called “structured outputs,” which essentially lets developers pass in a valid JSON schema that guarantees the model will always generate responses that adhere to it. No omission of required keys, no extra values you weren't expecting, no need for strongly worded prompts to achieve consistent formatting.On the flip side, the European Union has introduced the first legislation to develop safe and trustworthy AI within its borders. This legislation includes a 4 tier risk classification system for all AI products ranging from minimal risk to unacceptable risk, and a 3+ year timeline for companies developing AI products to comply with these new regulations.The React core team announces the changes to Suspense will delay the release of React 19 for a bit longer than originally planned, but should ultimately lead to a better end user experience for devs and library authors alike.And the news rounds out with a game of “guess the CSS usage statistics” compiled by Chrome's anonymous usage statistics. Ever wondered what percentage of websites are styling scrollbars, or how many set height? Not to mention the amount of CSS properties we've never heard of before: font-synthesis-small-caps, anyone?News:Paige - EU rolls out first-ever legal framework for AIJack - OpenAI Structured OutputsTJ - Chrome CSS usage statisticsBonus News:React 19 release delayedWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Deadpool & Wolverine movieJack - Facebook MarketplaceTJ - The Lord of the Rings film seriesThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

This week's episode kicks off with an announcement that Node 22.6 has experimental TypeScript support! What you might not realize unless you read the fine print though, is that this isn't the sort of TS support you might assume. Instead, the feature strips type annotations from .ts files, allowing them to run without transforming TS-specific syntax.Tauri, a competitor to Electron for building cross-platform desktop apps, just released a stable release candidate of Tauri 2. Tauri promises lower memory usage and CPU usage by taking advantage of a system's native webview on the frontend and using Rust on the backend.A new acronym is sweeping the JavaScript world: e18e - or Ecosystem Performance. E18e is focused on improving JS package performance, by removing redundant dependencies in old packages or replacing them with more modern alternatives, improving the performance of widely used packages, and building modern alternatives to outdated packages.News:Paige - e18e initiativeJack - Node 22.6 with experimental TypeScript supportTJ - Tauri 2.0 RCBonus News:Courts rule Google is a monopolist in the search worldWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Charisma towels from CostCoJack - The Old Man TV series and Bad Sisters TV seriesTJ - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder TV series

Google is making headline news once again as it reverses course on a decision to block third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. After years of testing, planning, and delays, Google scrapped a plan to turn off third-party cookie tracking by default like Safari and Firefox already do.In other news, the annual CSS Working Group meeting wrapped up recently, and some of the exciting features the group will be focusing on this year include: the if() statement for conditional styling, cross document view transitions without the need for a JavaScript library, and (perhaps the most anticipated feature) cleaner, easier CSS anchor positioning. Vercel introduces feature flags in Next.js and SvelteKit with Vercel's Flags SDK. The Flags SDK works with any feature flag provider, and sits between the application and the source of the flags to help devs follow best practices for using feature flags, while keeping websites fast.And finally, Reddit has doubled down on blocking search engine crawlers from surfacing new posts and comments in recent weeks, and as of now, Google is the only mainstream search engine that's made a deal that will allow it to index new search results when users search for posts on Reddit.News:Paige - Exciting new CSS features coming out of this year's CSSWG meetingJack - Feature Flag Support from VercelTJ - Chrome's is no longer removing third-party cookiesBonus News:Reddit is now blocking all non-Google search engines and AI botsAll the video talks from React Conf 2024 are availableWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Apple Watch SEJack - 3D printing (Autodesk Fusion 360 program)TJ - 2024 Paris OlympicsThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

Web development survey results season is upon us, so this week's episode covers two of the newly released survey results: the State of React survey 2023 and Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2024.Just over 13,000 developers filled out the State of React survey, and the results were quite interesting. React devs are fans of component libraries like MUI (Material UI) and shadc/n, state management libraries like Zustand, and data fetching libraries like TanStack Query. They gripe about well-known Hook footguns like useEffect(), useMemo(), and useCallback(). And features like React Server Components and the use() Hook are still largely untested by the community, although many devs have heard of them.The more all encompassing development survey from Stack Overflow received 65,000 responses this year, providing some very cool insights about the larger developer world beyond the bounds of React.It's fascinating to watch the trends starting to catch on or die down in the web development space year over year, and we highly encourage everyone to take a look at the survey results. There will probably be some surprise in store.News:State of React Survey 2023Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2024What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - NeilMed Sinus Rinse KitJack - Logitech Spotlight Presentation RemoteTJ - Electric fly swatterThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

Popular web framework Astro is making lots of headlines this week, between new experimental feature Server Islands, and achieving “official deployment partner” status with Netlify, it's been a whirlwind.But in addition to Astro's big news, Expo, arguably the most popular framework for building React Native apps, has been endorsed by the React Native team as the recommended way to build apps.Also, Vitest 2.0, the fastest growing test framework, has introduced a new experimental feature called “Browser Mode”, which allows users to run tests in the browser natively, providing access to browser globals like window and document.Now back to Astro. In 2021, Astro made island architecture a mainstream idea, and Server Islands takes it a step further, making it easy to combine high performance static HTML and dynamic-server generated components.And the Astro announcements kept coming with Netlify being declared Astro's official deployment partner. Netlify's betting on Astro and Server Islands, and will be sponsoring the Astro team with $12,500 each month to keep improving the framework and OSS community. Well done, Astro team!News:Paige - Expo is the recommended way to build React Native appsJack - Astro 4.12 Server Islands and Astro server-islands demo siteTJ - Netlify is Astro's “Official Deployment Partner”Bonus news:https://vitest.dev/guide/browser/What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Grafana dashboardsJack - Public speakingTJ - Mammoth Cave National ParkThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

Friend of the podcast (and previous guest host), Jason Lengstorf, joins Jack and Paige today to talk about the latest happenings in the web dev world - and wax poetic at the end about favorite restaurants and fine dining.First up, is AI model runner ONNX, which Jack's been digging into recently. ONNX offers many pre-trained models which can run locally or in the browser and integrates well with many different programming languages.After that is new Lodash library competitor es-toolkit. It's smaller, faster, relies heavily on native browser APIs, and wants to supplant Lodash for all those useful helper functions so many JS apps still rely heavily on.Then there's a new React project framework named react-server that claims to be the easiest way to build React apps with server-side rendering.Finally, Jason shares his experience with full stack JavaScript SDK Vinxi, which makes it easy for devs to build JavaScript apps and even frameworks.News:Paige - es-toolkit and what's next for ESLint Jack - ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange) AI model runner and React ServerJason - Vinxi · Dev Agrawal on LWJ teaching Vinxi · Nikhil on Vinxi at ViteConfSpecial Guest:Jason Lengstorf, host of Learn with Jason and developer-focused media consultant.Jason's X profile @jlengstorfJason's YouTube channelLearn with Jason siteJason's link tree (jason.energy/links)What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Bear TV seriesJack - Inside Out 2 movieJason - Chef movie and The Chef ShowThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

The hosts switch up the regular news format this week in favor of another favorite developer topic: tech gear. All the extras that make web development that little bit nicer.If you were stranded on a desert island (that only had power and Internet), what tech gear would you bring that you just can't live without?Aside from MacBook Pros for all three hosts, there's a good variety of office chairs, adjustable desks, external monitors, keyboards, mice, headphones, microphones, and even cameras. Many of the recognizable brand names make an appearance like: Apple, Logitech, Elgato, Microsoft, Steelcase, and Shure.If you've ever wanted recommendations from folks actively using these products (and not getting sponsored to endorse them) then this is the episode for you.And of course, we want to know what you use as well, so join us in the Discord to share your own workspace setups, the gear you can't live without, and anything else you want to talk about.News:Paige's picks -Logitech MX Keys S keyboardTresanti Adjustable Height DeskCamo software to turn any camera phone into a webcamArzopa 15.6” Portable Monitor Jack's picks -Logitech Vertical Mouse (Lift)Elgato PrompterElgato Stream DeckShure SM7B MicrophoneDas KeyboardTJ's picks - Steelcase LeapMicrosoft Ergonomic KeyboardAirPods ProApple Magic MouseWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Hunger Games movie seriesJack - Hanging with Jason LengstorfTJ - Harry Potter movie series Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire

In a rare turn of events, it was a slightly quieter week in terms of actual web development news, so the hosts round up some technology-adjacent news and drama to share.Jack kicks off the show recounting his experience of being one of four developers in a reality show-type scenario that his friend Jason Lengstorf (host of the YouTube show “Learn with Jason”) put together. Next up is more drama around how AI companies are training their LLMs. Up and coming AI company Perplexity's getting some heat for ignoring the robots.txt files on websites banning AI companies from crawling the content to teach their models.After that, TypeScript 5.5, previously in beta stage (in episode 42), has now reached release candidate stage. It brings with it inferred type predicates, regex syntax checking, and 33% smaller package size.News:Paige - TypeScript 5.5 RCJack - Don't build another effin' chatbot - Web Dev Challenge S1E1 (Learn with Jason)TJ - Perplexity and robots.txt drama and Apple is the first company charged with violating the EU's DMA rulesBonus news:window.aiWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Hunting Party bookJack - Bridgerton on NetflixTJ - The Paris ApartmentThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fire