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

Hosts share their favorite tech gear recommendations for web development, including MacBook Pros, office chairs, adjustable desks, monitors, keyboards, mice, headphones, microphones, and cameras. They discuss top picks from brands like Apple, Logitech, Elgato, Microsoft, Steelcase, and Shure. Recommendations are based on personal use and not sponsored endorsements. Additionally, the episode includes news picks and discussions on movies like 'The Hunger Games' and 'Harry Potter' series.

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

Although we’re already halfway through 2024, this week the State of JavaScript survey for 2023 dropped, and the hosts weighed in and discussed the results they found most interesting.This year the survey provided a lot more write in options instead of predefined lists, which made extrapolating clear answers in many cases more difficult than it otherwise would have been, but there were still some clear winners in terms of usage and popularity among respondents. React and Next.js continued to dominate in the framework wars, Vite was beloved by most everyone, and the new category of AI tools was dominated by ChatGPT. There’s lots of interesting data here to peruse, but also some questions about the accuracy of results with having to normalize so many written responses.  Another topic of discussion was the new release of htmx 2.0. It’s dropping support for Internet Explorer,  breaking out all the previously built-in extensions from the main project, and (most exciting of all) now offers a dark-mode version of the website.We get an update on the React Suspense drama that began last week when the React team fundamentally wanted to change how Suspense is handled in React 19, and many library maintainers who rely on Suspense under the hood voiced concerns that it would severely impact how their libraries work. The React team has since backed off changing Suspense, and agreed to find a solution that works better for everyone, and we’ll update you on what that solution might be as soon as we know more.And finally, Adobe continues to make headlines this year as the US Federal Trade Commission sues it over confusing and hard-to-cancel subscription plans. For a company as big and successful as Adobe, the fact that it uses confusing and obfuscated terms and conditions to penalize users who try to cancel subscriptions is shameful, and the US FTC is taking a stand against it. News:Paige - htmx 2.0 is releasedJack - State of JS 2023 results are inTJ - The US FTC sues Adobe (Full complaint) Bonus news:The React team reverses course on proposed Suspense changes and Tkdodo’s summary of the Suspense dramaBlue Collar Coder video on React SuspenseWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Three Body Problem novelJack - Cascadia JS conferenceTJ - Yellow Altra running shoesThanks 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

Today’s episode covers a slew of hot topics making headlines in the web development and general technology world.TJ kicks off the show with his firsthand experience of GitHub Copilot Workspace (available to users by invite only). He tested Copilot Workspace with a relatively simple issue in one of his repos, and while the plan Copilot came up with seemed sound, the implementation didn’t end up working. It took Copilot several minutes each time he asked it to try and code a working solution again too, which wasn’t the best experience. While it’s still extremely early days for Copilot Workspace, it still has a ways to go before it will replace developers at this rate.The next topic is around a talk at Google I/O: the latest in web UI. In the talk, Google DevRel Lead, Una Kravets, highlights some of the best new features out like native scroll driven animations and view transitions, the introduction of the popover API and anchor positioning in CSS, and CSS container queries and nesting and layout, typography, and color improvements. Her talk is accompanied by slick visual demos and is definitely worth a watch.Next up is some new drama in the React world: the React team is solidly considering fundamentally changing the way Suspense works in React 19, and the general React public is not happy about it. Hopefully their concerns are heard before it gets finalized.And there’s a bit of bonus news as well: Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) unveiled “Apple Intelligence”, Apple’s answer to AI, which will include Siri interfacing with Chat GPT 4o when it doesn’t know the answer, custom, AI-generated emojis, and the new Safari 18 beta version. Jack also recommends a cool CSS browser extension called Design GUI for managing colors in CSS variables.News:Paige - The latest in Web UI (Google I/O ‘24) talkJack - React Suspense drama in React 19TJ - GitHub Copilot WorkspaceBonus news:Safari 18 Beta is outApple unveils Apple Intelligence its answer to AIDesign GUI CSS browser extensionWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Substack newslettersJack - Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire movie TJ - A Brief History of Intelligence bookThanks 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

Vanilla JS author Chris Ferdinandi joins the podcast this week to talk about how having ADHD has affected his career in web development.Chris shares his own diagnosis of ADHD as a child, then proceeds to discuss how it can be both a positive and a negative depending on the situation and how different individuals can have ADHD to varying degrees. He covers strategies he’s developed over the years to be most effective at his job; things like sending follow up emails after meetings with lists of deliverables or blocking off chunks of time on the calendar during the workday for focus work like coding. And he also makes recommendations for coworkers or managers of neurodivergent folks on how to support them so they can do their best work. Finally, he offers advice for listeners who may relate to many of the symptoms described during the show, and what they can do if they want to learn more about getting diagnosed.It’s a very enlightening episode, and fascinating to hear about the progress being made in the field of ADHD as well as the growing destigmatization around the diagnosis: many listeners may even pick up tips to help them manage their own work days better after listening in.Special Guest(s):Chris Ferdinandi, author of the Vanilla JS series, training program, and podcast, and web development teacher, content creator, and consultant. Main Topic:The challenges and advantages of being a web developer with ADHDRelevant Links:Chris on Twitter @ChrisFerdinandiChris’s website Go Make ThingsChris’s other website ADHD ftw!Chris on GitHubWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Paris Apartment novelJack - Staying above the Tech Twitter dramaTJ - AI tools to help writing like ChatGPTChris - Gardening and web componentsThanks 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 is a rapid fire episode of news topics today because (as always) there’s plenty going on in the front-end development world.Evan You, the creator of the popular Vue.js framework and Vite build tool, is back with a new static site generator named VitePress. VitePress allows users to build fast, content-centric websites with Markdown, a fully customizable theme, and Vue-enhancements for greater interactivity, and it will generate static HTML pages that can be deployed anywhere.There’s also two new component library frameworks taking a page from the shadcn/ui open source component library: JollyUI and Ark UI. JollyUI provides shadcn/ui compatible, react aria components that you can copy and paste into your apps. They’re accessible, customizable, open source, and look darn good at first glance. Ark UI takes a slightly different approach billing itself as a headless library for building reusable, scalable design systems that work for a wide range of JS frameworks.And the Angular team is back at it again with the twice a year release of a new major version of Angular. We’re up to v18 now, and Angular is encouraging users to move away from zone.js for change detection. It’s been a staple of Angular for years, but the library came with a number of developer experience and performance downsides and so the Angular team’s been hard at work building new APIs that don’t rely on zone.js and they’re ready for devs to try them out.In bonus news, Google now offers its Gemini AI in Chrome DevTools to help developers better understand the errors and warnings that pop up in the console, Kyle Shevlin shares a very well written design system retrospective based off his own experiences building cross platform design systems for clients and dev teams, and IBM watsonx brings its own Code Assistant AI tool to the table. A unique twist with Code Assistant is that it offers not only code generation, but also code modernization (i.e. refactoring legacy code or translating code from one language to another).News:Paige - VitePress SSG frameworkJack - Ark UI 3.0 and JollyUI react aria compatible componentsTJ - Angular 18 is now availableBonus news:Google Gemini AI in Chrome DevToolsDesign System Retrospective article by Kyle ShevlinIBM watsonx Code AssistantWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - BUBM double layer cable travel bagJack - Creo Chocolate tourTJ - Sharp Tech 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

Conference season is in full swing this week Vercel showed off the new goods they’ve got for developers to get excited about.During Vercel Ship, the Next.js 15 RC (release candidate) was officially announced. Next.js 15 includes benefits like: support for React 19 and the React Compiler (Experimental), plus hydration error improvements. It also offers experimental support for partial pre-rendering, a new API to execute code after a response has finished streaming, and new config options for the App and Pages Router. But the biggest thing to note in this release is the change to caching: in Next 15, fetch requests, GET route handlers, and client navigation are no longer cached by default (a confusing default in Next.js, which caused a lot of confusion for devs why they were seeing the new data in local dev, but not in prod). Next has reversed course on this aggressive caching, and now requires teams that need it to opt in instead of having to opt out.Not to be outdone, Google search rolled out AI overviews to all Chrome users with its latest browser update. While initial reviews of the AI’s accuracy and truthfulness are mixed, it’s a strong indicator that the AI hype train continues to go strong, and every major tech company must have an AI offering to compete. What’s less clear is how Google will monetize this offering, how SEO and website traffic will fare now that users may never need to leave the Google search engine to get the answers they seek, and if this will cause a decline in the amount of time and energy people put into writing articles and posting useful information if no one besides the LLM training models will consume it. It’s a brave new world we’re facing, and it will be interesting to see who survives and how it continues to evolve.Last but not least, the team behind the popular JavaScript framework Solid.js debuts the meta framework SolidStart 1.0. The thinking behind SolidStart is that it integrates multiple separate packages to provide complete functionality, but each of these pieces can be replaced with a user’s own custom implementation if desired. Out of the box, SolidStart is built on Vinxi (a Vite + Nitro-based bundler and runtime), the Seroval serializer, and the Solid Router. It offers all the things we’ve come to expect from a good meta framework: file-based routing, streaming, server functions and actions, data pre-loading, API routes, and more, and it can be deployed on every platform that has a Nitro preset (25+ platforms and counting).The Solid team has been good at reading the room: pioneering signals in 2019 and adding server functions in 2022, so there’s a good chance they’ll continue to make smart bets going forward, and we wish SolidStart the best of luck.News:Paige - SolidStart 1.0Jack - Next.js 15TJ - Google search’s AI overviewWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Relax Meditation mobile appJack - Fourth Wing bookTJ - Apple Vision ProThanks 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

We’ve got an exciting episode with our co-host Jack Herrington fresh from his trip to React Conf where the React core team and close collaborators unveiled all the cool things they’ve been working on, including the much anticipated React Compiler and some exciting new features for React Native Expo.React Compiler is a new Babel-enabled plugin that will allow React apps to handle the memoization and re-rendering of components in an application so that developers won’t have to use the useMemo() and useCallback() hooks themselves. It will essentially save devs from having to think about it (and save them from the foot guns of implementing it incorrectly), and it is completely optional (not built in to React 19) and can be done via incremental adoption across an already existing application.In related news, Vercel (the creators of Next.js, the most popular React framework in the world) announced they had raised $250m in funding, and the company is currently valued at $3.25b. Just wow! While we can only assume some of that funding will go towards continuing to improve Next.js and their core business of web hosting, they also said they’ll continue to invest heavily in their v0 generative UI system, which currently generates copy-and-paste friendly React code using shadcn/ui and Tailwind CSS that people can use in their projects.Another popular JavaScript framework, Astro, made a splash as well with its release of Astro 4.8. In addition to the usual performance enhancements and bug fixes, it added experimental support for Astro Actions with niceties like full type-safety, a single global action file that any client component can access, automatically parsing form request objects using a Zod schema, and progressive enhancement on forms.Finally, the news wraps up with some new features that came out in the Safari 17.5 release.News:Paige - Astro Actions in v4.8Jack - React Compiler, React Compiler Playground, Jack’s in-depth video of React CompilerTJ - Vercel raises $250m; valued at $3.25bBonus News:TJ - Safari 17.5What Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Parks and Recreation TV seriesJack - How to ADHD bookTJ - NYT gamesThanks 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 episode of Front-End Fire we welcomed special guest Jason Lengstorf to chat about the news with us. We opened with a follow-up discussion of the let versus const debate from last week. Jack made a video (see below for link), and we had a bit of fun talking about the controversy.After that we introduced Effect, a library that dubs itself the missing standard library for TypeScript. Effect just had its first stable release, so we discussed what the library does, what sort of apps it works well in, and how in the world they raised over 2 million dollars in VC money.Finally, Jason walked us through his latest creative venture: 4 Web Devs 1 App. The concept, as the name implies, is getting four web developers together to build apps using the same technology. The behind the scenes though involves a full production team, over four terrabytes of files per video, and a ton of logistics.News:Jack - const vs. letTJ - Effect 3.0Jason - 4 Web Devs 1 AppSpecial 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:Jack - LightroomTJ - Firefox power user kept 7,500 tabs open for two yearsJason - Node.jsThanks 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