Web Tools #405 - JS Libraries, VS Code Tools, Uncats

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A new math-related feature that's been in the ECMAScript specification for some time now is the exponentiation operator. Certainly not something you'll use often, but one to keep in mind if you're building some sort of math-related app or functionality.

The exponentiation operator is represented by two asterisks (**) and is an easy way to do exponents with JavaScript. The syntax is as expected. For example, "2 ** 4" is "2 to the power of 4".

Here are some examples with the results of the logs in the comments:

Try it on CodePen

The examples include a negative exponent, which, if you haven't seen one before, isn't as straightforward as you'd expect. There's also a few other complex examples merely to demonstrate different ways of using the operator.

Browser support for the exponentiation operator is excellent (it was part of the ES2016 releases), so you can use it safely in most cases. But note that this feature is equivalent to using the old Math.pow() method with one exception: the new exponentiation operator also accepts BigInts as operands.

If you're coming to JavaScript from another programming language that used an exponentiation operator, you'll want to read up on the operator in MDN's article, as there are some important differences explained there.
 

JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks

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Open MCT
A next-generation mission operations data visualization framework from NASA, web-based, for desktop and mobile.

XState Catalogue
A collection of categorized, professionally designed interactive state machines you can drop into your projects.

callbag-jsx
A minimalist UI library using JSX for layouts and callbags (i.e. values that change over time) for reactivity. No virtual DOM, no dirty model checking, no compile time invalidations.

kaboom.js
A JavaScript game library that helps you make games fast and fun.

FicusJS
Lightweight functions for creating web components, stores for application state, and a fast, lightweight publish/subscribe event bus.

Taro
A lightweight 3D game engine for the web built with Three.js and cannon-es.

tRPC
A framework for building end-to-end typesafe APIs with TypeScript. Alternatively, you can think of it as a way to avoid APIs altogether.

SvelteKit
Official framework from the Svelte team for building Svelte applications of all sizes, with a beautiful development experience and flexible filesystem-based routing.

synergy
A tiny declarative, component-driven, interoperable runtime library for building web user interfaces.

Svelte NodeGUI
Create native apps for Windows, macOS and Linux using Svelte and CSS.

Paperclip
A free and open source tool that allows you to visually build presentational components for React, all within your existing IDE.

On the Release Radar:

• NativeScript - Now at version 8+
• Hybrids - UI library is now at version 5+

VS Code, Text Editors, IDEs, etc.

The WebPageTest API has Gone Public with GitHub Integration
Developers and Performance Engineers can now get direct and programmatic access to WebPageTest's in-depth front-end performance data. Catchpoint launched their official GitHub Action for WebPageTest, making it possible for developers to test code changes against performance budges and get detailed performance information right in their existing CI/CD workflow.  sponsored

VSColors
A search engine and gallery for VS Code themes that you can filter by keyword, number of installs, trending, colors, and more.

goormIDE
An enterprise-level cloud IDE service to maximize productivity for developers and teams.

Mail Studio
Not free for commercial use. A desktop application for Windows, Mac, and Linux for creating responsive emails that combines visual and code editing elegantly.

natto
A tool for fiddling with JavaScript that lets you write and manipulate JavaScript expressions on a spatial "canvas".

vscode-icons
A popular VS Code extension that adds the ability to search for icons directly inside VS Code.

Okay
Not free. A simple code snippet manager for Mac that lets you save, share, categorize snippets or you can even use it as a general notes app.

VSCode Notion
VS Code extension that lets you browse Notion pages directly in VS Code.

Real GitHub Dark Theme
A dark theme for VS Code that's a fork of a project form GitHub's design team.

Settings Sync
Another popular VS Code extension that lets you synchronize settings, snippets, themes, file icons, launch, key bindings, workspaces, and extensions across multiple machines using a GitHub gist.

Browser Lite
An embedded browser in VS Code, a much lighter version of another project that it's forked from.

The Uncategorizables

The WebPageTest API has Gone Public with GitHub Integration
Developers and Performance Engineers can now get direct and programmatic access to WebPageTest's in-depth front-end performance data. Catchpoint launched their official GitHub Action for WebPageTest, making it possible for developers to test code changes against performance budges and get detailed performance information right in their existing CI/CD workflow.  sponsored

Rest API Generator
Free online tool to generate a custom dataset that you can read and write to via a REST API.

BookStack
PHP-based, self-hosted, easy-to-use wiki software platform for organizing and storing information.

follow.it
A service that improves on the standard ways that websites notify followers and subscribers of new content. Free plan is excellent but you can use code SWITCHNOW for a discount on the Premium features.

VideoTouch
Display a video message on your website along with a call-to-action. Free up to 5 videos and 5,000 visits per month.

Hoppscotch
Open source API development ecosystem that helps you create requests faster, saving time on development.

smoothstep.io
A toolkit for building animations in the WebGL Shader language.
 
Counter
An open source and privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics.

Paradoc
Instantly write and deploy documentation, no servers, no build, and includes Markdown support.

Form2Sheet
Create HTML forms that store the responses in Google Sheets. Minimal free plan.

Serverless Stack
A framework that makes it easy to build serverless applications using AWS Lambda and React.

Vantage
A service that connects to your AWS account so you can analyze costs and usage. Excellent free plan analyzes up to $500 in AWS costs.
 

A Tweet for Thought

Sass is far from obsolete but Una is correct that more and more developers are opting for plain CSS now.

 

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Before I Go...

ICYMI, someone called Niftski has beaten the Super Mario speedrun record. The player's reaction when it's done is always the best part of these kinds of videos! (Skip to about 5:20 if you want to see the last few moments.)

Thanks to everyone for subscribing and reading!

Keep tooling,
Louis
@WebToolsWeekly

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