Top picks — 2022 February
Use Streams to Build High-Performing Node.js Applications
A very informative guide on using streams in Node.js by Deepal Jayasekara. From types of streams, through limitations, to advanced usage of pipelines and pipes. All are explained in an excellent level of detail.
Getting Started With CSS Cascade Layers
CSS Cascade Layers is a new feature to help us with the specificity of our CSS. It will make separating between core styles, a third-party code and project-specific much easier. This article by Stephanie Eckles is an excellent primer.
What Were the Hottest Front-End Tools in 2021?
I am still catching up with all 2021 summaries. However, this one by Louis Lazaris caught my attention. It is a collection of 60 great resources that gained significant popularity last year.
lib: add fetch
The fetch() API is now part of Node.js 17.5. It was one of the most frequently requested features in the Node.js community. To use it, you only have to pass --experimental-fetch flag, and you don’t need to use module imports. Amazing!
Improving JavaScript Bundle Performance With Code-Splitting
Adrian Bece published this excellent primer for code splitting. It clearly explains the problem that this technique solves, introduces some tooling and presents easy to apply techniques using vanilla JavaScript and React.
Introducing the Dialog Element
Browser support for the native dialog element is getting better. Thie new HTML elements will solve many accessibility issues on the Web. I am looking forward to it!
Browsing with assistive technology videos
The key to making an accessible website is understanding how people with disabilities browse the Web. This resource is a collection of videos that present the process using a screen reader on desktop, screen reader on mobile, traversing the web content using only keyboard, screen magnification and speech recognition. It is an excellent resource for you all front end devs out there!
Express.js 5.x
When everyone thought that Express was dead and Fastify would take the world of Node.js APIs over, there it is — a new alpha version of Express.js 5 is out. Exciting times!
Reliably Send an HTTP Request as a User Leaves a Page
Performing asynchronous requests on an action that navigates out of the current page cannot be guaranteed. There is a solution to this problem and Alex MacArthur explains it well. I have never heard of navigator.sendBeacon() before. Thank you Alex!