![]() It’s been exactly one year since we started Bytes 🎉. Thanks for reading and telling your friends. We love all 87,000 of you (some more than others, admittedly). Feel free to reply to this email with you singing us your favorite birthday song. It doesn’t have to be by Jeremih, but it doesn’t not have to. In this issue we break down React 18, talk about building websites without JavaScript (kind of), and learn how Vue 3.1 is not a planet.
thE sUSpenSe iS KIlliNg mE React 18 is Live! (Kinda)The React Team published their plan for React 18 last week and released the first alpha version. Along with it they also created an invite-only “working Group to prepare the community for gradual adoption of new features in React 18”. We weren’t invite, but it’s cool because like we didn’t really want to be. We’re already in a working group anyway, you probably don’t know her - she goes to another High School. New Stuff:
The Bottom LineY’all have been sleeping on React, but it’s time to wake the h*ck up… even though the public beta is still “months away.”
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It’s easy if you try Astro is shipping websites without JavaScript (gasp)Whether you’re trying to build faster websites or reduce traffic in the Suez Canal, the advice is the same: just ship less. But that’s become a lot tougher these days as How TF does that work? Astro renders your entire site to static HTML and only ships JavaScript to the parts of your site that need it via an Islands Architecture approach. Interactive components (like image carousels and shopping carts) get loaded by Astro — but if a user never sees an interactive element, they never load the JavaScript required to run it. (This seems similar to code splitting to me, but that doesn’t quite have the same ring as “we don’t ship JavaScript”.) But what about my frameworks? Calm yourself, Iago. You can still use any framework you want (and any other npm package like TypeScript or Tailwind) to build your UI components. Astro just renders everything that doesn’t need JavaScript to static HTML during the build. The Bottom LineAstro was built by Fred K. Schott — the creator of Snowpack and a clear proponent of the Using-your-middle-initial-makes-you-seem-smarter Theory. The Snowpack connection is important, because Astro’s “JavaScript on-demand” approach is only possible because of these newer, less-bundled build tools like Snowpack, Parcel, esbuild, and others. As these build tools continue to gain ground on the Webpacks of the world, we can’t help but wonder — will we eventually be saying the same thing about Astro gaining on the top SSG/SSR frameworks like Next.js and Gatsby? Cool Bits
Job Posts2x Sr. Frontend Engineers - React | 100% RemoteClose.com is looking for two experienced individuals that have a solid understanding of React and want to help design, implement and launch major user-facing features. They are a 100% globally distributed team of ~45 high-performing, happy people that are dedicated to building a product our customers love. G2i is seeking Senior React, React Native, or Node Developers | 100% RemoteLooking for highly competent engineers that take pride in their craft, are never satisfied with their knowledge base, and bring enthusiasm to building applications in React, React Native, and/or Node. Ideal candidates are comfortable working in dynamic engineering environments and display strong communication and documentation skills. |