NOTE: This is issue #111 of my newsletter, which went live on Friday, September 20. 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.

The State of HTML 2024 survey is now open, and Interop 2025 is receiving proposals. We have new browser updates in Chrome 129, Firefox 130, Safari 18, Polypane 21, Vivaldi 6.9, and Wolvic 1.7. On the Release Radar, we have Express 5, Material UI v6, Redwood v8, TypeScript 5.6, Vue 3.5, and more. The Resource Bundle includes avatars, icons, gradient generators, image utilities, an SVG editor, and a set of CSS loading animations.

State of HTML 2024

The 2024 edition of State of HTML 2024 is live. The questions cover more than simple HTML. You'll touch on aspects related to web components, accessibility (a11y), native and web apps, and more. This is your yearly chance to help shape the path the web platform and browsers take.

State of HTML 2024

Interop 2025

The Interop initiative is getting ready for the 2025 edition. You can submit your proposals until October 9th. Do you have any pain points about web browser compatibility? Share your pain; it might be fixed by next year.

💻 Browser News

Web Platform Updates

Do you want to check all the updates to the web platform in a single go? There's no better place than Rachel Andrew's monthly updates. Now for the month of August.

New to the web platform in August

Chrome

Chrome 129 introduces scheduler.yield() (allowing developers to improve perceived performance), CSS animation with intrinsic sizes, and more. Developers also get improvements to performance and elements panels, Lighthouse 12.2.0, and even more fixes.

Firefox

Firefox 130 improves the translation service with new languages and the option to translate selected text to a different language after you translated the entire page. If you live in the USA or Canada, you can also check the local weather directly on the new tab page.

Polypane

Polypane 21 brings better stability for devices running on Apple chips. It upgrades the Chromium platform to version 128. And if you install the 21.1 update, you'll get scroll syncing to all scrollable areas and various improvements and fixes.

Vivaldi

Vivaldi released the 6.9 update for all platforms. Desktop users receive an improved tab management experience. Android users receive a revamped Settings panel. iOS users get desktop-style tabs and finer control of the Address fields. Everyone gets a suite of minor improvements and fixes.

WebKit

Safari 18 is finally here. You can now hide many of the annoying banners you encounter. There is support for the View Transitions API and CSS Style Queries. iPhone mirroring and Safari remote inspection development and debugging are also easier.

The list of new features is long, full of details, and is available in the official post linked below:

WebKit Features in Safari 18.0

Wolvic

We last heard from Wolvic a while ago. The 1.7 update brings OpenXR-enabled hand tracking and OpenXR eye tracking (similar to the features available for Apple Vision Pro). The Gecko engine moved up to version 128, and there are many improvements and fixes.

Wolvic 1.7 Released

But wait! There is more! Wolvic also has a Chromium version. Version 1.0 brings this variant closer in feature parity to the Gecko version, with support for eye-tracking navigation.

Wolvic Chromium 1.0 Released

📡 The Release Radar

Astro 4.14, Astro 4.15 - the web framework for content-driven websites
Biome v1.9 - A toolchain for web projects
Chroma.js v3.0.0, Chroma.js v3.1.0 - JavaScript library for all kinds of color manipulations
Deno 1.46 - A modern runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript
Ember 5.11 - A JavaScript framework for creating ambitious web applications
ESLint v9.10.0 - Find and fix problems in your JavaScript code
Express 5.0.0, Express 4.21.0 - Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for node
faker v9.0.0 - Generate massive amounts of fake data in the browser and node.js
Jasmine 5.3.0 - Simple JavaScript testing framework for browsers and node.js
JsonTree.js v3.0.0 - generates customizable tree views to better visualize JSON data
Material UI v6, MUI v6.1 - Comprehensive React component library that implements Google's Material Design
Node v22.9.0 (Current), Node v22.8.0 (Current), Node v22.7.0 (Current), Node v20.17.0 (LTS) - An asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime
NodeBB v3.9.0 - Node.js based forum software built for the modern web
pnpm 9.8, pnpm 9.9, pnpm 9.10 - Fast, disk space efficient package manager
preact 10.24.0 - Fast 3kB React alternative with the same modern API
React Email 3.0 - Build and send emails using React
Redwood v8.0.0 - The App Framework for Startups
relay 18.0.0 - a JavaScript framework for building data-driven React applications
Storybook 8.3 - the industry standard workshop for building, documenting, and testing UI components in isolation
TypeScript 5.6 - A superset of JavaScript that compiles to clean JavaScript output
Vue 3.5 - a progressive, incrementally-adoptable JavaScript framework for building UI on the web
Vuestic UI v1.10.0 - an open-source Vue 3 component library

🛠️ Front End Resources

Avatars - a collection of diverse free avatar images
Avaaatars - The largest Library of Avatars, customizable and commercially free
Gradient Generator - Create & export linear, radial, & conic gradients
macOSicons - Free 5000+ macOS app icons in the style of macOS Monterey, Big Sur
Polotno Studio - Free Online Design Editor
Popicons - Make your designs pop with Popicons
Slimify - Compress your images in a blink
SVG WTF - powerful SVG editor
Whirl - CSS loading animations with minimal effort!

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. To find ways to help, please read Smashing Magazine's article We All Are Ukraine 🇺🇦 or contact your trusted charity.

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

State of HTML 2024, Interop 2025, Chrome 129, Firefox 130, Safari 18, TypeScript 5.6, and more | Front End News #111

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