Full Description

This episode kicks off with the new Deno 2 release candidate. Deno is an open source JavaScript runtime with native TypeScript support, a built-in toolchain (think linters, code formatters, test runners, and more), and backwards compatible with Node.js and npm. Just one month prior Deno released v1.46, and now v2 is out and better than ever. V2 boasts improved dependency management, updates to the APIs and CLI, and improved CommonJS support because even though ESM is the future, so much good stuff in the JS ecosystem still runs on CJS. There’s a lot to be excited about in this new version of Deno, and the team hopes users will let them know they think. Web Components take a big step forward in terms of wider spread adoption with the adoption of the Declarative Shadow DOM by all major browsers back in August. The Shadow DOM (a Web Components standard) provides a way to scope CSS styles to a specific DOM subtree and isolate the subtree so the element can be reused without fear of script conflicts or unexpected CSS cascades. But it only worked on the client side. The Declarative Shadow DOM removes this limitation and now things like SSR, streaming data, and server rendering styles are possible. SSR has always been a sticking point for the adoption of Web Components, but now it doesn’t have to be. Here’s to WC’s best year yet. Because the web development world can never be without some good drama going down, we now present for your viewing pleasure: the drama between WordPress and WP Engine. Earlier in the week, Matt Mullenweg, creator of open source CMS WordPress and CEO of WordPress hosting company Automattic, took aim at competitor company WP Engine, and essentially tried to drag WP Engine through the mud saying it should pay a significant amount of money for using the WP trademark and that it doesn’t contribute enough back to the open source WP community. He did this at a WordPress conference, on X, and even posted it on the WordPress.org site. WP Engine refused to cave to what seemed like blackmail and fired back with a cease and desist letter against Mullenweg and Automattic. In response, Automattic sent its own cease and desist letter to WP Engine, and banned WP Engine from accessing the resource of WordPress.org. To say that the WordPress community is worried and upset is an understatement, but we’ll have to see how this plays out because it’s not over yet. We’ll keep you posted. In other news, three of OpenAI’s company leaders left after CEO Sam Altman called an “abrupt” reorganization. The CTO, chief research officer, and VP of post training all exited almost a year after the boardroom coup that temporarily ousted Altman. On its face everyone says the decisions to leave were amicable, but only time will tell if that’s truly the case. And our Fire Starters portion of the show where we learn a bit more about a bit of less publicized HTML, CSS or JS info from around the web is about the autocomplete attribute. Inspired by taking the State of HTML survey, the autocomplete attribute lets developers specify what if any permission the user agent has to provide automated assistance in filling out form field values. Think things like “given-name” or “family-name” for a form with first name and last name inputs or “shipping street-address” for an address input. There are some nifty values that can be applied to forms, inputs, selects, and textareas, and we guarantee it will make for a better user experience in the end.

Links

• Declarative Shadow DOM for Web Components
• Deno 2 release candidate
• Wordpress vs WP Engine drama
• Cloudflare AI Audit
• OpenAI departures
• State of HTML survey
• We’re on Bluesky now @front-end-fire.com! Follow us!
• autocomplete attribute
• Stuff You Should Know podcast
• Actual typewriters at The Type Space store
• Detroit Tigers