js13kGames 2023 winners, Chrome 118-119, Firefox 119, Edge 118, Vivaldi 6.4, Safari 17.1, Node 21, TypeScript 5.3 Beta, and more | Front End News #104
NOTE: This is issue #104 of my newsletter, which went live on Wednesday, November 1. You might find this information valuable and exciting and want to receive future issues as they are published ahead of everyone else. In that case, I invite you to join the subscriber list at frontendnexus.com.
In this issue, we meet the winners of the 2023 edition of js13kGames. In Browser News, we find out what happened on the web platform in October, and we welcome Chrome 118 and 119, Firefox 119, MS Edge 118, Safari 17.1, Safari TP 181, and Vivaldi 6.4 for desktops.
There are many targets on the Release Radar, including Astro 3.3, Electron 27, Material Web 1.0, Node 21, TypeScript 5.3 Beta, Yarn 4.0, and more. Last, we got a large bundle of images, editors, generators, and other assets and tools for your projects.
js13kGames 2023 winners π
js13kGames is a fantastic contest of coding prowess, where developers have to create a themed HTML5 game crammed in only 13KB of code. The theme for the 2023 edition was "13th Century," and we got the list of winners.
π» Browser news
Rachel Andrew is back with her October synopsis on web platform changes.
Chrome
Chrome 118 supports the CSS @scope
rule and the prefers-reduced-transparency
media feature. The Dev Tools bring a new section for custom properties, Lighthouse 11, and more navigation keystrokes to improve accessibility.
Chrome 119 is the first release in the new three-week update cycle. It supports the CSS :user-invalid
and :user-valid
pseudo-classes, sets all cookies to a maximum expiration date of 400 days, and more. In Dev Tools, you can now emulate many more devices. The Lighthouse panel runs Lighthouse 11.1.0, and the list goes on.
Firefox
Firefox 119 includes many quality-of-life improvements (such as the possibility to edit PDF files) and security fixes. Under the hood, you can also encounter many discrete updates to various areas of the web platform.
Microsoft Edge
MS Edge 118 brings new feature updates (such as the new AI-powered Designer) and changes to many of its policies.
Vivaldi
Vivaldi has staggered their releases based on the target platform. While Android remains at 6.2 and iOS at 6.3, desktop users received the 6.4 update. You can now synchronize your data between your devices and even your car with Vivaldy Sync.
WebKit
The WebKit team released another update to Safari, numbered 17.1. iPhone users can now also enjoy the benefits of the Managed Media Source API (the feature landed in 17.0 for iPad and MacOS users). There are also many bug fixes across the entire web platform.
There is also another release of the Safari Technology Preview series. The 181 update includes support for the new CSS content-visibility
features, along with many bug fixes.
π‘ The Release Radar
Astro 3.3, Astro 3.4 - The web framework that scales with you
Clipboardy v4.0.0 - Access the system clipboard (copy/paste)
Electron 27.0.0 - :electron: Build cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
Fresh 1.5 - The next-gen web framework
highlight.js 11.9.0 - JavaScript syntax highlighter with language auto-detection
Material Web 1.0 - Material Design Web Components
Next.js 14 - create full-stack Web applications
Node v20.8.1 (Current), Node v18.18.2 (LTS), Node v21.0.0 (Current), Node v21.1.0 (Current), Node v20.9.0 (LTS), October 2023 Security Releases, OpenSSL Recent Security Patches -
NodeBB - Node.js based forum software built for the modern web
Nuxt 3.8.0 - The Intuitive Vue Framework
Nuxt DevTools 1.0 - Unleash the Nuxt Developer Experience
Parcel v2.10.0 - The zero configuration build tool for the web
pnpm v8.9.0 - Fast, disk space efficient package manager
Postgres.js v3.4.0 - The Fastest full-featured PostgreSQL client for Node.js, Deno, Bun and CloudFlare
Remix v2.1.0 - Create modern, resilient user experiences with web fundamentals.
Rockpack 4.0.0 - create React Application with Server Side Rendering, bundling, linting, testing within 5 minutes
Solid v1.8.0 - A declarative, efficient, and flexible JavaScript library for building user interfaces.
Sortable 3.0.0 - Vanilla JavaScript table sort
Storybook 7.5 - a frontend workshop for building UI components and pages in isolation
TypeScript 5.3 Beta - a superset of JavaScript that compiles to clean JavaScript output
Yarn 4.0 - a package manager that doubles down as project manager
π οΈ Front End Resources
404 Illustrations - Trendy, ready to use images for your 404 page
AnimatiSS - Nice collection of CSS animations for your awesome web projects
Box Shadows - Create, edit, and generate multiple custom CSS box shadows with ease.
cccolor - HEX, RGB & HSL color picker
Durves - A tool for creating and exporting dot patterns
Epic Easing - Easing made easy.
Gradient Designer - Gradient designer with code generation.
JSONGenerator - Create complex JSON data structures using intuitive templates.
Karektar - Create your own bitmap font
Photopea - Free online advanced image editor
Popicons - Bring life & personality to your projects.
User Stock - Free photos of people's faces to use as avatars in UI mockups, prototypes, and more.
Vectorpea - Free online vector editor
There's more where that came from. Explore the rest of the Front End Resource collection.
Wrapping things up
Ukraine is still suffering from the Russian invasion - if you are looking for ways to help, please check Smashing Magazine's article We All Are Ukraine πΊπ¦ or contact your trusted charity.
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That's all I have for this issue. Have a great and productive week, keep yourselves safe, spend as much time as possible with your loved ones, and I will see you again next time!
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Written by
Adrian Sandu
Adrian Sandu
I am a "front-of-the-front-end" developer, focused on CSS, user experience, and content creation. Available for hire, projects, or outsourcing.