Front-End Fire

Discover how Parcel now supports React Server Components, sparking excitement for developers. CodeSandbox teams up with Together AI to launch AI-powered sandboxes, transforming coding practices. Plus, Netlify partners with TanStack Start, streamlining project deployments with impressive features. Learn about the emerging Nova JavaScript engine and weigh in on the competitive landscape between Netlify and Vercel. Meanwhile, get the scoop on quirky tech acquisitions and a hilarious auction of a Michael Jordan-shaped Cheeto. It's a blend of innovation and fun!

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

Discover the latest insights on AI tools like Claude Sonnet 3.7 and Claude Code, which are changing coding practices with their impressive capabilities. Learn about the innovative create-tsrouter-app, now supporting Solid JS and offering useful add-ons. The hosts also dive into the fun world of AI exploring gaming, including a comedic tale of Claude attempting to play Pokémon. Additionally, enjoy discussions on modern kitchen gadgets and vintage electronics restoration, highlighting creativity and the joy of repair.

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 groundbreaking AI contender, DeepSeek R1, is stirring the tech landscape with its low development cost and open-source model. The hosts share their mixed experiences with Devin.ai, an AI coding assistant. They also discuss new trends in TypeScript validation through a common standard schema. The conversation moves to developer frustrations with broken code and introduces innovative JavaScript array methods. Personal reflections on literature and intriguing media reveal a balance between technology and life amidst coding adventures.

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