Hot New Web Dev – July 2024

Welcome to Hot Web Dev July 2024, featuring the latest technology and web development news. This edition comes a little late as I have been visiting family in England and spent a few days in the Scottish Highlands. This month we focus on the reliance on technology in the modern age. We take a peek at the upcoming React 19 and Svelte 5 and uncover mathematics in the learning resources.

Global IT Outage – Have We Become Too Reliant On Technology?

A faulty software update took down Windows servers worldwide and disrupted governments, airlines, banks, healthcare and even preparations for the 2024 Olympic Games. This catastrophic event leads to the question: Have we become too reliant on technology? Possibly. Whilst old-fashioned pen and paper is slow and cumbersome for today’s fast-paced society, technology is replacing jobs. General Practitioners (Doctors) are sitting at desks answering user-submitted forms to detect if you need medication for example.

Self-checkouts in supermarkets are replacing staff members and generally require a staff member to assist you in using them because they can be quite annoying. Schools have become technology-focused reducing the need to learn to write properly unless you have a learning difficulty where technology can aid your ability. I guess it is all about balance at the end of the day. One software update stopped the world briefly. May I suggest Linux…

Learning Resources

You don’t necessarily need a strong knowledge of Mathematics to learn programming. However, it can be advantageous if you want to move into the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning field. Learn more in this 18-day Mathematics for Machine Learning course. Fancy a university-level course you can find a range of free MIT courses available.

Coding Resources

React and Svelte are popular front-end JavaScript libraries/frameworks. They are very different and are both due to release new versions soon. React 19 introduces new features that make it less cumbersome to work with including automatic re-render, server components, easier integration of web components and simplifying forms amongst some of the new features.

Svelte 5 will overhaul the whole system with changes to its syntax, and an introduction to runes, which improve speed and state management. It also offers better support for TypeScript.

Whichever library or framework you choose to work with on your next project both are currently in the release candidate phase so there may be a few bugs still lurking. If you cannot decide on which to choose perhaps you need to check out this head-to-head comparison.

WOW Tool Of The Month

July’s tool of the month is DynaUI, an animated UI library built with React, Tailwind CSS and Framer. Each component has subtle animations which provide a real lift to your home or landing page. The components available are modals, notifications, tooltips, buttons, animated text, stacked cards and more.

Individual components are free to use and you can unlock lifetime access to more features including sections and templates for a cost of £49 at the current time of writing. If you are a busy developer who needs to set up an app or website without the hassle of building your own this is the library for you.

The Best of the Rest in July 2024

• Instead of restricting AI and algorithms, make them explainable
• Fresh Resources for Web Designers and Developers (July 2024)
• DevToys (Developer Tools App) is Now Available for Linux
• Learn JavaScript Reactivity: How to Build Signals from Scratch
• The Mathematics of Algorithms