--- title: "V8 v8, the State of JS survey results, and CDNJS lives" publication: "JavaScript Weekly" issue: 468 published_at: "2019-12-20" canonical_url: "https://javascriptweekly.com/issues/468" --- There's a lot going on with JavaScript in the run up to Christmas. #468 — December 20, 2019 [Read on the Web](https://javascriptweekly.com/issues/468) If you're subscribed to any of our other newsletters, you'll have seen we're doing 2019 roundups this week.. but not in JavaScript Weekly! :-) **Our 2019 JavaScript roundup will be here on January 3**, but today is a normal issue. Happy holidays! JavaScript Weekly [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/v1576860423/vhlz4nnbwkkzfwthnxwn.png)](https://tesseract.projectnaptha.com/) [Tesseract.js 2.0: Pure JavaScript OCR for 100 Languages](https://tesseract.projectnaptha.com/) — A pure JavaScript port of the popular C++ [Tesseract](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract) library commonly used for visual text recognition purposes by other systems. The homepage has a neat demo where you can drop on images of your own and see how they get processed. v2.0 is now out and [here's why the creator has been working on it.](https://t.co/ArSyMg02kS?amp=1) Jerome Wu [V8 Release v8.0](https://v8.dev/blog/v8-release-80) — Yes, that’s v8 of v8 – not confusing at all 😂 Nonetheless, it’s a key step forward for the most widely deployed JavaScript engine, and introduces optional chaining, nullish coalescing, and some significant performance improvements. It’ll be landing in a Chrome and Node near you soon. Leszek Swirski [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/c83360d8.jpg)](https://frontendmasters.com/courses/fullstack-v2/?utm_source=cooperpress&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fullstackv2) [Learn the Full Stack with Jem Young, Senior Software Engineer at Netflix](https://frontendmasters.com/courses/fullstack-v2/?utm_source=cooperpress&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fullstackv2) — Become a more well rounded engineer by understanding what is happening on the server-side. Frontend Masters sponsor [Results from the 'State of JavaScript' 2019 Survey](https://2019.stateofjs.com/) — While the methodology is far from _perfect_ (for example, Angular and Angular.js seem to get lumped together as the same thing), this is nonetheless the biggest JavaScript-specific survey. There’s a lot to dig through, so you may prefer _The Changelog's_ **[7 insights from the State of JS 2019 roundup](https://changelog.com/posts/7-insights-from-the-state-of-js-2019)** post that looks at the most striking results. I also found the associated [Hacker News discussion](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21831747) interesting. Sacha Greif, Raphaël Benitte and Amelia Wattenberger [An Update on CDNJS](https://blog.cloudflare.com/an-update-on-cdnjs/) — [CDNJS](https://cdnjs.com/) is a popular content distribution network for JavaScript files but just a couple of months ago [its continued development was in doubt.](https://github.com/cdnjs/cdnjs/issues/13524) In this significant update we learn more about how CDNJS works and how Cloudflare want to take it forward (and they need our help). Zack Bloom [Mastering `console.log` Like A Pro](https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/mastering-js-console-log-like-a-pro-1c634e6393f9) — This isn’t exactly _new_ ground, but if you’re a heavy `console.log` user, this article deftly covers a variety of extra console methods to keep on your radar. Harsh Makadia ⚡️ Quick Releases - [Node.js 13.5.0](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v13.5.0/) - [Material UI 4.8](https://github.com/mui-org/material-ui/releases/tag/v4.8.0) — Popular React components system. - [Relay 8.0](https://github.com/facebook/relay) — GraphQL client and integration for React apps. - [sql.js 1.1](https://github.com/kripken/sql.js) — SQLite, but compiled to JavaScript. - [Cash 5.0](https://github.com/kenwheeler/cash/releases/tag/5.0.0) — jQuery-style DOM manipulation for modern browsers. 💻 Jobs [Backend Engineering Position 🤘 in Beautiful Norway 🎉](https://crystallize.com/careers/backend-developer) — Passion for JavaScript, GraphQL, Scalability and Performance? Want to move to Norway? Join our fast growing e-commerce service Crystallize. Crystallize [Find a Job Through Vettery](https://www.vettery.com/tech?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=cooper-javascriptweekly&utm_term=tech&utm_content=grouped&utm_campaign=ad-77584) — Make a profile, name your salary, and connect with hiring managers from top employers. Vettery is completely free for job seekers. Vettery [Technical Content Producer (Interim) at Ably (London, Remote OK)](https://jobs.ably.io/o/technical-content-producer-interim) — Ably builds tools and cloud infrastructure for the realtime internet. They need a developer/tech writer on a temporary basis to coordinate, outsource, and review the creation of technical content for a developer audience. Ably 📘 Articles & Tutorials [What's Coming in Angular 9.0.0 and Ivy Improvements](https://ionicframework.com/blog/angular-9-0-0-and-ivy-improvements/) — Angular 9.0 was due to be released this year but is being held back [until next year](https://twitter.com/jules_kremer/status/1206645952548720640) to give the team a break. Nonetheless, it’s going to pack in some key improvements. Mike Hartington [An Introduction to Controlling the Raspberry Pi 4's GPIO Pins from Node](https://itnext.io/an-introduction-to-raspberry-pi-4-gpio-and-controlling-it-with-node-js-10f2ce41af12) — If you’ve got a Raspberry Pi sat around (I have a few!) and you’re looking to have a play over the holiday season, you could start here. Uday Hiwarale [Migrating a Distributed System from JavaScript to TypeScript](https://www.ably.io/blog/typescript-is-making-programming-better?utm_medium=email&utm_source=javascript-weekly&utm_campaign=cooperpress) — Learn how to migrate a globally-distributed system written in JavaScript over to TypeScript. Ably sponsor [Understanding Decorators in JavaScript](https://www.simplethread.com/understanding-js-decorators/) — Decorators are a first-class concept in some languages that can be used to quickly modify functions or classes by way of a simple directive. The idea is still merely [a proposal](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-decorators) for JavaScript, but it’s possible to adapt some of the ideas now with Babel. Mike Green [A Case for Using `void` in Modern JavaScript?](https://gist.github.com/slikts/dee3702357765dda3d484d8888d3029e) — Some interesting points here. I doubt they’ll take off, but I like the examples. slikts [Writing JavaScript With Only Six Characters](https://javascript.christmas/2019/17) — A fun article like this tends to do the rounds each year and it never ceases to delight me at how quirky JavaScript can be. Erik Wendel [Const Assertions in Literal Expressions in TypeScript](https://mariusschulz.com/blog/const-assertions-in-literal-expressions-in-typescript) Marius Schulz [What’s New in Preact X?](https://blog.logrocket.com/whats-new-in-preact-x/) — [Preact](https://preactjs.com/) is a lightweight React alternative with React API compatibility. Ogundipe Samuel [Sentiment Analysis of Your Year with TensorFlow.js](https://www.twilio.com/blog/how-positive-was-your-year-with-tensorflow-js-and-twilio) — Perform sentiment analysis with TensorFlow in JavaScript to determine the positivity of text messages received via Twilio. Lizzie Siegle [BDD vs Executable Specifications](https://gauge.org/2018/11/12/bdd-vs-executable-specifications/?utm_source=JS_weekly&utm_medium=newsletter_ad&utm_campaign=js_weekly&utm_term=&utm_content=) Gauge sponsor ▶[The Design Principles of Vue 3.0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLpLYhnGqPA) — A 50 minute talk from the creator of Vue.js, Evan You, on the principles behind the changes coming in Vue 3.0. Evan You [10 Useful Angular Features You’ve Probably Never Used](https://blog.bitsrc.io/10-useful-angular-features-youve-probably-never-used-e9e33f5c35a7) — Assuming you actually use Angular in the first place, naturally. Chidume Nnamdi [Why Svelte Won’t 'Kill' React](https://t.co/kFwdLQypT9?amp=1) Kit Isaev 🔧 Code & Tools [A-Frame 1.0 Released: Framework for Building VR Experiences](https://aframe.io/blog/aframe-v1.0.0/) — A-Frame handles the 3D and WebVR boilerplate required to get running across numerous platforms quickly. Version 1 boasts full WebXR support. A-Frame Team [Introducing Scully: The Angular Static Site Generator](https://www.netlify.com/blog/2019/12/16/introducing-scully-the-angular-static-site-generator/) — The Angular community now has their very own static site generator. Netlify [Polly.js 3.0: Record, Replay, and Stub HTTP Interactions](https://netflix.github.io/pollyjs/) — A library from Netflix for recording, replaying and stubbing HTTP interactions via native browser APIs. [GitHub repo.](https://github.com/Netflix/pollyjs/) Netflix ▶[From NodeConf EU: What's Being Built and Where Node.js Is Heading](https://www.heroku.com/podcasts/codeish/48-from-nodeconf-eu-2019) Heroku sponsor [Sarus: A Client-Side Library for WebSockets](https://sarus.anephenix.com/) — Helps you handle situations where connections unexpectedly close. Anephenix [Alpine.js: A Minimal Framework for Composing Behavior in Your Markup](https://github.com/alpinejs/alpine) — _“Think of it like Tailwind for JavaScript.”_ Alpine.js [vue2-datepicker: A Date / DateTime Picker Component for Vue](https://github.com/mengxiong10/vue2-datepicker) xiemengxiong Looking for a bit more? Enjoy our annual roundups in a number of other fields: - [The top Node.js links of 2019](https://superhighway.dev/node-2019) - [The top Ruby and Rails links of 2019](https://superhighway.dev/ruby-2019) - [The top Go(lang) links of 2019](https://superhighway.dev/go-2019) - [The top front-end development links of 2019](https://superhighway.dev/frontend-2019) - [The top Postgres links of 2019](https://superhighway.dev/postgres-2019) If you're celebrating, we hope you have a happy holiday season and we'll see you in the new year on January 3, 2020. 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