Newsletter - March 2024

My thoughts on my favorite stories from March including full-stack React frameworks, Node.js, and the Arc Browser.

In case you missed it, I'm shifting the focus of this newsletter off of exclusively "Web Tech" into more of my thoughts on links and stories that interest me from the past month. Here's my favorite links from March!

Eloquent JavaScript 4th Edition

The 4th edition of this fantastic book was released this month. I own the 2nd edition published back in 2014, and it helped me understand the language better than any other resource I read back then. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend ordering a copy or reading it online for free.

TanStack Start

I caught this tweet at the beginning of the month and was intrigued. I think TanStack Router brings some interesting ideas to the router game, so a full-stack framework built on top of that could be very compelling. It's easy to see a proliferation of frameworks in any domain as a negative because it contributes to fatigue, and a sense of always being behind the curve. However, I see it as a positive when smart people build new frameworks because they bring fresh ideas that existing players can adopt in their own ways. More on that in the next link 👀

A wild full-stack React framework appears!

It's very early, but TanStack .com's `tsr` branch is already being built and deployed to @vercel using our new experimental full-stack template "TanStack Start", which uses TanStack Router and a splash of @nkSaraf98's Vinxi.

More info… pic.twitter.com/Yn9ARJoWw5
— Tanner Linsley (@tannerlinsley) March 5, 2024

Theo on React Router

This is a great video to watch to get some perspective on how we got to this point in time with regards to Next.js, React Server Components, Remix, and React Router. The TLDR is that with the release of SPA mode in Remix, there may come a day where React Router as we know it today is no more, and simply becomes the SPA mode of Remix.

As someone who has used React Router for a number of years now, I think this makes sense and I'm positive about the convergence. It will make the progression from a SPA only architecture with React Router to a server powered architecture with Remix actually feasible for teams with mature applications.

Node.js Site Redesign

Speaking of competition, Node.js has been pushed by newcomers like Bun and Deno to give it's marketing a bit of a facelift. The new site is modern and friendly to new developers. It's hard to believe the Node was started 14 years ago already. I remember being so excited about the ability to run JS on the server, and how lightweight and UNIX-y Node felt in the early days. It was such a welcome alternative to the heavier frameworks in Java and C# that dominated my sphere of software at the time.

Browser Company Funding Round

Awhile back I did a trial run of using Arc as my default browser for a few months. It was a positive experience overall, but I felt it was just a little too different and foreign so I made the switch back to Brave. Since then, however, they've released some new AI features and a compelling Dev Mode that might just make me stick. Alongside this funding announcement, they've also started a video series called We Might Not Make It. I think it's a brilliant piece of marketing, and the two videos they've released so far are actually a very insightful look into the future of what a browser could be.