January 2, 2022

Web in December - Newsletter by Agney

Hello 2022 👋🏻

2021 was an year when restrictions that were placed in the previous year got relaxed. It is great to see that some of the ideas that were generated in the time of forced restrictions are continuing to be used. It’s a lot like building web for accessibility, when you are building for special cases you are making the web better for everyone. It’s the same with building for remote use cases, you make the world a lot more accessible.

Releases

• Safari Technology Preview 137 - This release is special because it brings a CSS feature (Safari first!), :has. It’s a the first CSS selector to select the parent which has a child.
• WebAssembly and Back Again - Firefox 95 now uses a new technique named RLBox to convert specific areas of code into Web Assembly. This way malicious actors will have one extra step to escape the sandbox created by browsers.
• Open Props - It’s like Tailwind but with only CSS variables. A token based CSS system where variables are prefilled.
• Framer Motion 3D - The excellent Framer Motion library has a 3D version now based on Three Fiber.
• patterns.dev - An ebook from the wonderful Addy Osmani and Lydia Hallie on architecting web applications.

Tutorials

• Coding Interview with Dan Abramov - Watch Dan Abramov take a coding interview with Bed Awad, he breezes through some questions and struggles on others (centering a div)
• DNS “propagation” is actually caches expiring - It takes time for the DNS propagate is something we say every day. Julia Evans debugs this in the most epic way possible. Mess with DNS
• Defensive CSS - CSS is often written as copied from a design tool, or the content currently available. When the content is dynamic or changes (which is very often), the CSS breaks. This article introduces some defensive CSS properties that you can use to counter the same.
• Designcember - web.dev has added an article each for every day of December, it’s a site that’s very easy on the eyes even if you don’t read any of the articles.
• Designing Better Links For Websites And Emails: A Guideline - A very detailed take on how to write links. A lot of people write links as - Here, This, Click Here, but how to write them well? Are the links here correct? Find out in the article.

In the Spotlight 🔦

There was a vulnerability in Log4j, very widely used logger library in Java community. The obvious result is people spending a lot of time finding and fixing versions in their own applications.

React Conf

• Concurrent Features - React 18 is finally shipping with concurrent features (and not a concurrent mode). The features are completely opt in and there aren’t any breaking changes.

• If you want to try out the new React 18 RC, you can check out Shruti Kapoor’s video for some step by step instructions:

React 18 for app developers - YouTube

Shruti Kapoor

• Web Components RFC - It has been a complaint since forever that React does not respect Web standards. The components RFC is here and it aims to fix this pain point.

• React without Memo - One of the most interesting takes from the conference was this talk from Xuan Huang on common pitfalls with memo and what the team intends to do about it.

In Other News

• State of CSS Survey 2021 - It’s an exciting time for CSS, the number of libraries the Assess region on technologies in this survey is the best proof.
• How to Get Startup Ideas - An excellent Y Combinator overview of how to create startup ideas.
• TikTok surpassed Google as most popular site in 2021 - How can Google no longer be the most popular site on Internet? Tik Tok and the art of addictive small videos, people look at Reels and Tik Tok because they don’t have enough time for a proper Youtube video and then spending hours on a trot.
• All the Unnecessary Things Microsoft Added to Edge in 2021 - I’m one of the earliest adopters of Edge. To be honest, I was not looking for any specific features, just a change from Chrome. (I use Firefox for my work, just to separate my work from other stuff. This way, I can close a browser and be done with work) So far, Edge has added a nice set of features, but once in every release they sneak in a feature that makes no sense to be on a browser; could very well be an extension.
• Building a newbie-friendly codebase - It isn’t easy writing code or a newcomer, but that’s the easiest we can make the codebase for anyone else on the team. Doist team explores different ways they use to ensure that they can onboard people easily.

Looking Forward

• CES 2022 - January 5-7