🧠 50 Articles for May the Fourth
Tags: webdev, javascript, frontend, node
Published: 2024-05-03 09:04:14

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This year I started a new series on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-rappl/) - "Advanced Links for Frontend". Each issue has 10 links to outstanding posts / articles. This bundle contains the links from the last 5 issues (issue 26 to issue 30).

Unbelievable - there are now 300 links (!) collected already in this year. Just superb!

I hope you enjoy this collection. Let me know in the comments which of these articles is your favorite (and why).

## Issue 26

1. Creating a Planning Poker Demo app 🃏🕹️ (https://dev.to/mattlewandowski93/creating-a-planning-poker-demo-app-394h) by @mattlewandowski93 
I love Kollabe, really great app that does its job.

2. How to write a code formatter (https://yorickpeterse.com/articles/how-to-write-a-code-formatter/) by Yorick Peterse
Oh, that reminds me that there are still languages that lack a proper formatter.

3. Learn JavaScript Fetch API: Retrieving Data from Servers (https://blog.teamtreehouse.com/javascript-fetch-api-retrieving-data-from-servers) by Rohald van Merode
Now that we learned how to use it, let's learn why we should not use it.

4. Biome v1.7 (https://biomejs.dev/blog/biome-v1-7/) by Victorien Elvinger
Finally an easy path out of eslint (and prettier, but I like prettier - so meh).

5. How to Write Accessible Technical Documentation – Best Practices with Examples (https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/best-practices-for-writing-accessible-technical-documentation/) by Ezinne Anne Emilia
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.

6. Vue Router Enhancements (https://blog.openreplay.com/vue-router-enhancements/) by Samuel Nwabude
Sweet! The navigation guards are really handy.

7. A primer on the cascade and specificity (https://piccalil.li/blog/a-primer-on-the-cascade-and-specificity/) by Andy Bell
The cascade is one of the things in CSS that are most crucial but least understood.

8. JS Naked Day (https://js-naked-day.org/) by everyone
Are you ready to "un-JS" your page? I am not.

9. Building an interactive 3D event badge with React Three Fiber (https://vercel.com/blog/building-an-interactive-3d-event-badge-with-react-three-fiber) by Paul Henschel
Could this be something that we can use for the upcoming Micro Frontends Conference? Yes.

10. An intro to TSConfig for JavaScript Developers (https://deno.com/blog/intro-to-tsconfig) by Jo Franchetti
The title is misleading - it should be: Converting a JS Dev to a TS Dev.

## Issue 27

1. Modern CSS patterns in Campfire (https://dev.37signals.com/modern-css-patterns-and-techniques-in-campfire/) by Jason Zimdars
Nice, modern setup despite my doubts that "no compiler" is going in the right direction; I'd still regard some checker / optimizer as useful.

2. Adding Speech Navigation to a Website (https://blog.openreplay.com/adding-speech-navigation-to-a-website/) by Sarah Okolo
I love the speech API and the whole concept outlined in the article is quite nifty - well done!

3. Converting Plain Text To Encoded HTML With Vanilla JavaScript (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2024/04/converting-text-encoded-html-vanilla-javascript/) by Alexis Kypridemos
So - Markdown?! Really liked the way how the project and the ideas are presented.

4. Best Icon Libraries for a Dev in 2024 (https://dev.to/masumparvej/best-icon-libraries-for-a-dev-412d) by @masumparvej 
Icon fonts are out - time to find your new buddy!

5. How to Build AI Products That Don’t Flop (https://www.builder.io/blog/ai-flop) by Steve Sewell
In short: Don't use AI to build an AI product; use your brain.

6. New Wasm Project Brings Web Components to Backend Languages (https://thenewstack.io/reversing-web-assembly-project-extends-web-components/) by Loraine Lawson
It seems like we finally found a use case for WASM!

7. Get your codebase ready for React 19 (https://thoughtbot.com/blog/get-your-codebase-ready-for-react-19) by Adrienne Ross
I got mine already ready for React 20 - why care about 19?

8. 5 Tailwind CSS Anti-Patterns to Avoid (https://spin.atomicobject.com/tailwind-css-anti-patterns/) by Jonathan Chaffer
I think this is a great list - especially since it aligns very well with my own experience using Tailwind.

9. Freelancing for Front End Developers: Tips for Success (https://blog.openreplay.com/freelancing-for-front-end-developers--tips-for-success/) by Joseph Umunna
Well, you have to try (and sometimes therefore: fail) before you know it works.

10. HTMX vs. Vue and React -- Pros and Cons (https://blog.openreplay.com/htmx-vs-vue-and-react--pros-and-cons/) by Nweke Emmanuel Manuchimso
In my book it's not so often "versus" but rather "when" and "in combination with". Why choose one if you can have both?

## Issue 28

1. Building a CLI from scratch with TypeScript and oclif (https://www.joshcanhelp.com/oclif/) by Josh Cunningham
Let's also add yargs to have CLI flags superpowers.

2. Introducing the Edge 2024 web platform top developer needs dashboard  (https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2024/04/18/2024-web-platform-top-developer-needs-dashboard/) by Alex Russell
Result being: If its in Chrome, it's most likely also in Edge. Same engine, same coverage.

3. Keeping up with the Node-ish ecosystem (https://www.mux.com/blog/keeping-up-with-the-node-ish-ecosystem) by Dylan Jhaveri
Yesterday there was just Node - now its a lot more.

4. We Need To Rewild The Internet (https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet) by Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon
I think this might be an uphill battle - but at least it's one for the right cause.

5. Electron 30.0.0 (https://www.electronjs.org/blog/electron-30-0) by Keeley Hammond
With BrowserView gone it's time to embrace WebContentsView; but even better is the support for the file system API.

6. Powerful React Form Builders to Consider in 2024 (https://www.sitepoint.com/react-form-builders/) by Femi Akinyemi
These form engines are super powerful and actually valuable in a lot of scenarios.

7. The Making of a TypeScript Feature: Inferring Type Predicates (https://effectivetypescript.com/2024/04/16/inferring-a-type-predicate/) by Dan Vanderkam
Great writeup on a very nice PR that will be the backbone of the upcoming 5.5 release.

8. Help us invent CSS Grid Level 3, aka “Masonry” layout (https://webkit.org/blog/15269/help-us-invent-masonry-layouts-for-css-grid-level-3/) by Jen Simmons
We are talking since years about Masonry layouts - now we are hopefully one step closer.

9. ECMAScript 2024 takes shape (https://www.infoworld.com/article/3715341/ecmascript-2024-takes-shape.html) by Paul Krill
I hope the Promise for unicode resolves before the WebAssembly heap grows.

10. Why PHP Usage Has Declined by 40% in Just Over 2 Years  (https://thenewstack.io/why-php-usage-has-declined-by-40-in-just-over-2-years/) by Richard MacManus
One word: JavaScript.

## Issue 29

1. What's New in the Reliable Web App Pattern for .NET (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/apps-on-azure-blog/what-s-new-in-the-reliable-web-app-pattern-for-net/ba-p/4116085) by Matthew Soucoup
Is it reliable yet?

2. JSR Is Not Another Package Manager (https://deno.com/blog/jsr-is-not-another-package-manager) by Ryan Dahl
It's also a registry!

3. Meet Ritmo, Musixmatch’s cross-platform design system (https://medium.com/musixmatch-blog/meet-ritmo-musixmatch-cross-platform-design-system-9f6296c5ed81) by Andrea Zillibotti
Love the concept, design, and flow. Well done!

4. The slow death of CSS vendor prefixes (https://fullystacked.net/prefix/) by Ollie Williams
For me personally it was a fast death that already happened like 5 years ago.

5. React 19 Beta (https://react.dev/blog/2024/04/25/react-19) by React Team
This is a big one!

6. Create CSS Shapes with a single element (https://css-tip.com/css-shapes/) by Temani Afif
A link that definitely belongs in the "might be useful one day" kind of category.

7. What is Vite (and why is it so popular)? (https://blog.stackblitz.com/posts/what-is-vite-introduction/) by Eric Simons
The real question is: Who dominates the bundler space now?

8. JavaScript vs TypeScript. Why We Should Learn TypeScript? (https://dev.to/hiro9108/javascript-vs-typescript-why-we-should-learn-typescript-4d5o) by @hiro9108 
I guess the should question is answered - now let's discuss the "could" question: Who could learn TypeScript?

9. React's evolution from Hooks to Concurrent React (https://tigerabrodi.blog/reacts-evolution-from-hooks-to-concurrent-react) by Tiger Abrodi
This is quite a comprehensive list - very enjoyable and interesting!

10. First post: A history of online public messaging (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/first-post-a-history-of-online-public-messaging/) by Jeremy Reimer
The article was definitely not what I was expecting, but in fact - that is good. Great read!

## Issue 30

1. A brief history of web development. And why your framework doesn't matter. (https://gebna.gg/blog/brief-history-of-web-development) by Bahaa Zidan
A wonderful read with great insights. Long story short: React is here to stay.

2. Svelte 5 Release Candidate (https://svelte.dev/blog/svelte-5-release-candidate) by Svelte Team
Talking about React - how about a bit of Svelte? Svelte 5 is around the corner!

3. The Difference Between b and strong in HTML – Explained with Examples (https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/difference-between-b-and-strong-in-html/) by Joan Ayebola
It's all about semantics.

4. Uno Platform 5.2 Released – One Project To Rule Them All (https://nicksnettravels.builttoroam.com/uno-platform-5-2-released-one-project-to-rule-them-all/) by Nick
Uno is an underrated project that lives in the shadows of Blazor, but comes with a lot of power.

5. Model Texture Transition and Procedural Radial Noise using WebGL (https://tympanus.net/codrops/2024/05/02/model-texture-transition-and-procedural-radial-noise-using-webgl/) by Mohammed Amine Bourouis
Really awesome demos - I need to use this somewhere.

6. The Front End Developer/Engineer Handbook 2024 (https://frontendmasters.com/guides/front-end-handbook/2024/) by Cody Lindley
A quite comprehensive guide - even micro frontends are covered!

7. Using Vite To Rebuild Local Dependencies in an NPM Workspace (https://prosopo.io/articles/using-vite-to-rebuild-local-dependencies-in-an-npm-workspace/) by Prospo
For some reason it does not do this out of the box!

8. Measuring Performance with the JavaScript Performance API (https://www.telerik.com/blogs/measuring-performance-javascript-performance-api) by Hassan Djirdeh
It's one of the essential APIs for actually tracking performance reliably.

9. Node.js 22 arrives, backs ECMAScript modules (https://www.infoworld.com/article/3715283/nodejs-22-arrives-backs-ecmascript-modules.html) by Paul Krill
Switch now!

10. Native Support for CJS/ESM Interoperability Begins in Node.js 22 (https://zacharylee.substack.com/p/native-support-for-cjsesm-interoperability) by Zachary Lee
More details on why only synchronous ESM graphs are supported and what that implies for your code.

## Conclusion

These are all outstanding articles by masterful authors. I enjoyed reading them all - I hope you did, too.

👉 Follow me on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-rappl/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/FlorianRappl), or here for more to come.

🙏 Thanks to all the authors and contributors for their hard work!