NOTE: This is issue #012 of my newsletter, which went live on Monday, December 21st. If you find this information useful and interesting and you want to receive future issues as they are published, ahead of everyone else, I invite you to join the subscriber list at frontendnexus.com.
We've finally made it to the end of 2020 and the 12th issue of this newsletter. With everyone winding down, the topics of this issue are also on the light side.
The new MDN Web Docs platform is out of beta, and we have the results for the MDN Web Developer Needs Survey and the Angular Developer Survey. Firefox updated to version 84, while the top releases are Node v14.15.3 (LTS) and npm v7.2.0.
As usual, you can head over to the web version if you prefer reading this in your browser instead of your email client.
Welcome Yari, the new platform for MDN Web Docs
The new platform for MDN Web Docs, codenamed Yari, has completed the beta period. This milestone marks the point where the community can actively contribute to the transition process. The next steps are transitioning to Markdown, improving search, and representing the MDN meta pages.
The results for the 2020 MDN Web Developer Needs Assessment are now available
We can now know what are the most frustrating things for web developers in 2020. The results for the 2020 MDN Web Developer Needs Assessment survey are here. You can check the report and the official announcement using the links below.
Angular Developer Survey Results
The Angular team ran a survey of their own, and they have the results as well. They plan to use their findings to improve the documentation, the onboarding process for new developers, and to make the framework faster and easier to use. Read about all that and more in the blog post linked below.
Browser news
Mozilla
Firefox 84 is the last update before the end of the year. The highlights include the option to enable a visual overlay showing the tabbing order, changes to the localhost URLs, WebRender comes to Linux and Android, and more. You can find more info in the release notes:
Software updates and Releases
Flux v4.0.0
Application Architecture for Building User Interfaces.
JSweet v3.0.0
A Java to JavaScript transpiler.
Node v14.15.3 (LTS)
Asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime.
npm v7.2.0
The package manager for JavaScript.
Interesting projects
Blob Opera
The project I picked for this last edition of the year comes from Google Experiments. It uses machine learning to match up to four voices that you can manipulate using just the mouse.
You can play around with the blob singers to create (some sort of) music. Or you can have them don Christmas hats and play pre-recorded carols.
Enjoy!
Wrapping things up
I am taking advantage of this downtime to take a break for the holidays. I will be back with issue #013 in early January. Until then, take care, stay safe, and spend as much time as you can with your loved ones.
Happy New Year! See you in 2021!
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