2023.04.24 - Node.js 20 is now available!

Title: 2023.04.24 – Node.js 20 Is Now Available!

The Tao of Go & Google DeepMind & Critical Thinking & Think and Learn Visually & 存亡绝续

This Week’s Highlights

Node.js 20 is now available! https://nodejs.org/en/blog/announcements/v20-release-announce
We’re excited to announce the release of Node.js 20! Highlights include the new Node.js Permission Model, a synchronous import.meta.resolve, a stable test_runner, updates to the V8 JavaScript engine to 11.3, Ada to 2.0, and more! Related:

• Deno vs. Node: No One Is Ready for the Move
• GitHub – Introducing npm Package Provenance
• Community Is the Future of AI

The Tao of Go https://bitfieldconsulting.com/golang/tao-of-go
So what is the Tao of Go? If we approached Go development sensitively and intelligently—following the natural contours of the language and the problem rather than bulldozing through them—what would that look like? Let’s try to establish a few general principles. Related:

• Go’s Error Handling Is a Form of Storytelling
• How Go Fixed Everything That Was Wrong With Programming

Announcing Google DeepMind https://www.deepmind.com/blog/announcing-google-deepmind
Earlier today we announced changes that will accelerate our progress in AI and help us develop more capable AI systems safely and responsibly. Below is a recap of what DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis shared with employees. Related:

• OpenAI’s CEO Says the Age of Giant AI Models Is Already Over
• Stability AI Released a New Open‑Source Language Model, StableLM
• There Is No A.I.
• Prompt Engineering vs. Blind Prompting

In Defense of No‑code’s Potential https://buttondown.email/hillelwayne/archive/in-defense-of-no-codes-potential/
Don’t think about businesses—think about people.

Is Critical Thinking the Most Important Skill for Software Engineers? https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/critical-thinking/
Critical thinking will only become more important as AI tools spread. Without it, you let others do the heavy lifting and miss flaws in arguments. When faced with jargon, you assume the speaker must know better; when you encounter a “thought leader,” you assume they’re right.

In‑Depth Reading

Kuikly – A Pure‑Native Cross‑Platform UI Framework Built on Kotlin – Native Development Experience https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/622485633
For front‑end developers, using RN‑style or Flutter‑style cross‑platform frameworks means learning new languages, tools, and ecosystems, essentially becoming a triple‑stack developer, and they often fall short of native performance (especially on low‑end Android devices). What if a cross‑platform UI framework could fully reuse the existing language, tools, and ecosystem, deliver native performance and rendering, be declarative (like Compose and SwiftUI), and remain lightweight (≈0.3 MB installer)? That’s Kuikly, a new generation cross‑platform UI framework launched internally at Tencent and already deeply adopted in production.

Rich Harris on Frameworks, the Web, and the Edge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXCipjbcQfM
Watch Rich Harris, creator of Svelte, share insights on frontend trends, the edge, and the web at Vercel’s Svelte Meetup hosted by Cockroach Labs in NYC.

ECMAScript Modules and Browser Compatibility https://molily.de/ecmascript-modules/
How do we ship modern JavaScript in a compatible way?

The Acronyms of Rendering on the Web https://www.netlify.com/blog/the-acronyms-of-rendering/
There are so many acronyms and initialisms in web development it’s hard to keep up. Does SSR affect my CWV? How many HTTP methods does a REST API need? Does a SPA use CSR? Help, I need CPR! Don’t worry—I’ve got you covered. Let’s break down the rendering‑related acronyms so you can finally get some R&R.

Spinning Diagrams with CSS https://x.st/spinning-diagrams-with-css/
I wrote a little math thing last year that featured equations like this. Several people were surprised that the spinning diagrams use no JavaScript or animated image formats—just HTML and CSS. So I thought I’d explain how they work before I forget.

It’s Time to Learn oklch Color https://keithjgrant.com/posts/2023/04/its-time-to-learn-oklch-color/
If you’re anything like me, the recent flood of CSS color features can feel overwhelming. For a long time HSL was promoted as the human‑readable alternative to hex or RGB and was the go‑to choice for comfortable web color work. Now, almost overnight, we have new options: hwb(), lab(), lch(), oklab(), and oklch(). There’s also color() which sort of fits into the same category and sort of doesn’t.

Offline Is Just Online With Extreme Latency https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2023/offline-is-online-with-extreme-latency/
The underlying principle, as Peter points out, is that when you shift the way you think about building things you open new doors to building different things. So even if you don’t like the idea of data synchronization over API transactions, it’s worth entertaining and imagining what’s possible in a paradigm that differs from what you’re used to.

I Made My Blog Solar‑Powered, Then Things Escalated https://louwrentius.com/i-made-my-blog-solar-powered-then-things-escalated.html
In 2020 I wondered if I could run my blog on solar power, inspired by Low‑tech Magazine doing the same thing (but better). The answer was “yes,” but only through spring and summer. Related: Offline Is Just Online With Extreme Latency

Load Balancing https://samwho.dev/load-balancing/
In this post we focus on how a single load balancer can distribute HTTP requests across a set of servers. We’ll start from the basics and work our way up to modern load‑balancing algorithms.

Fresh Finds

What’s New in ECMAScript 2023 What’s Next for Server‑Side Rendering in Angular Vite 4.3 Is Out! DPaint.js: Web‑Based Image Editor IPFS Is Now on Bluesky: A New Decentralized Social Network That Recently Spun Out of Twitter

The “Build Your Own Database” Book Is Finished RIP Legit Torrents 2005‑2023 [Lost at SQL – SQL Learning Game](https://lost-at-sql.

*(content truncated)

---

Originally written by Ping Xia (平侠) and published in Chinese on Web技术周刊 (Web Tech Weekly). Translated and adapted for DriftSeas with permission.