---
title: "The npm tea party"
publication: "JavaScript Weekly"
issue: 700
published_at: "2024-08-15"
canonical_url: "https://javascriptweekly.com/issues/700"
---

Plus a new idea for safer assignments in JavaScript, how someone won a contest with JavaScript, and Puppeteer's Firefox support. |        

#​700 — August 15, 2024 

[Read on the Web](https://javascriptweekly.com/issues/700)   

👋 Wow, issue 700! We're back after a week away. _Technically_ I'm still on vacation, but I didn't want to leave you in the lurch for too long.. ;-)
__
_Peter Cooper, your editor_ 

Together with [![WorkOS\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/c_fill,g_auto,w_514,h_98/e_make_transparent/co_white,e_outline:9/tdfxwgk852ui9leli4wm.png)](https://workos.com/?utm_source=cpjava&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q32024)   

JavaScript Weekly 

[![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/q1lv6y0mamnmemyjlmx3.jpg)](https://github.com/arthurfiorette/proposal-safe-assignment-operator)  

[ECMAScript Safe Assignment Operator Proposal](https://github.com/arthurfiorette/proposal-safe-assignment-operator) — We often feature ECMAScript proposals that are in their later stages, but how about a brand new one you could get involved with? This one proposes an interesting additional bit of language syntax (`?=`) that returns a `[error, value]` tuple from an assignment. 

Arthur Fiorette   

[Crafting a 13KB Game: The Story of Space Huggers](https://frankforce.com/space-huggers-how-i-made-a-game-in-13-kilobytes/) — We always love Frank’s dives into how he produces neat JavaScript experiments and, in this case, a complete game in just 13KB — and if it inspires you, the latest [js13kGames](https://js13kgames.com/) game development competition has _just_ started. 

Frank Force   [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/1289a5b4.png)](https://workos.com/?utm_source=cpjava&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q32024) 

[WorkOS: The Modern Identity Platform for B2B SaaS](https://workos.com/?utm_source=cpjava&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q32024) — WorkOS is a modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, offering flexible and easy-to-use APIs to integrate SSO, SCIM, and RBAC in minutes instead of months. It's trusted by hundreds of high-growth startups such as Perplexity, Vercel, Drata, and Webflow. 

WorkOS sponsor   

[Google's Angular Lead Sees Convergence in JavaScript Frameworks](https://thenewstack.io/google-angular-lead-sees-convergence-in-javascript-frameworks/) — _“When picking a framework, don’t overthink it. It will end up being the same technology anyway with a different facade.”_ Minko Gechev talks about leading the way in converging Google’s Angular and Wiz frameworks. 

Loraine Lawson (The New Stack)   

[Announcing Official Puppeteer Support for Firefox](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2024/08/puppeteer-support-for-firefox/) — As of version 23, Google’s originally Chrome-only [Puppeteer](https://pptr.dev/) browser automation library now has first-class support for Firefox too. 

Mozilla Hacks   

**IN BRIEF:** 

- ⭐ If you've wondered [why so many new npm packages are spam these days,](https://blog.phylum.io/the-great-npm-garbage-patch/) it may be because of 'Tea'. Though not the drinking kind..
- Brendan Eich has expressed his support for the currently stage 1 [Decimal draft proposal](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-decimal/) for bringing a more precise decimal number representation to JavaScript.
- There's an early technical preview of [React Native WebGPU](https://github.com/wcandillon/react-native-webgpu). William Candillon shows it off in [▶️ this 9-minute screencast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-DGY98cTjk).   

**RELEASES:** 

- [jQuery UI 1.14.0](https://blog.jqueryui.com/2024/08/jquery-ui-1-14-0-released/) – The legacy effects and widgets library reduces support for older browsers.
- [Madge 8.0](https://github.com/pahen/madge) – Create graphs of module dependencies.
- [React Native 0.75](https://reactnative.dev/blog/2024/08/12/release-0.75), [Angular 18.2](https://github.com/angular/angular/releases/tag/18.2.0), [Bun 1.1.23](https://bun.sh/blog/bun-v1.1.23), [ESLint 9.9](https://eslint.org/blog/2024/08/eslint-v9.9.0-released/)  

📒 Articles & Tutorials  

[Patterns for Memory Efficient DOM Manipulation](https://frontendmasters.com/blog/patterns-for-memory-efficient-dom-manipulation/) — Marc shares a solid look at the best practices to employ in order to avoid excess memory usage when managing/updating the DOM, all with a hope to make your apps faster. A good overview of the core principles behind DOM manipulation and optimization. 

Marc Grabanski   

['How I Won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, and a Can of WD-40'](https://davekiss.com/blog/how-i-won-2750-using-javascript-ai-and-a-can-of-wd-40) — This is _far_ from a technical JavaScript article, but it’s a fun story, involves some code and statistics, and ultimately might make you laugh. 

Dave Kiss   

[Breakpoints and `console.log` Is the Past, Time Travel Is the Future](https://wallabyjs.com/?utm_source=cooperpress&utm_medium=javascriptweekly&utm_content=javascriptweekly) — 15x faster JavaScript debugging than with breakpoints and console.log, supports Vitest, jest, node:test, and more. Huge changes are coming in Wallaby 2.0! Stay tuned. 🚀 

Wallaby Team sponsor   

[Common Causes of Memory Leaks in JavaScript](https://www.trevorlasn.com/blog/common-causes-of-memory-leaks-in-javascript) — Filled with basic examples oriented around V8-based runtimes like Node.js and Deno. 

Trevor Indrek Lasn   

[Learn Web Components](https://learn-wcs.com/) — If you’re looking to scrub on your Web Components know-how, this road map should prove useful. It’s a collection of good third party articles covering a wide range of knowledge. 

Andrico Karoulla   

[A Tale of Evading JavaScript Anti-Debugging Techniques](https://www.nullpt.rs/evading-anti-debugging-techniques) — When debugging code written by a third party, there could be some traps thrown in your way to prevent your usual debugging techniques. What to do? Revisiting a popular article from 2023. 

Veritas   

[Fine-Grained Reactivity in Svelte 5](https://frontendmasters.com/blog/fine-grained-reactivity-in-svelte-5/) — Taking a close look at Svelte’s new so-called _fine-grained reactivity._ 

Adam Rackis   

📄 [Tips for Using React Testing Library to Write Unit Tests](https://spin.atomicobject.com/react-testing-library-unit-tests/) Pavan Policherla 

📄 [45 VS Code Shortcuts for Boosting Your Productivity](https://www.sitepoint.com/visual-studio-code-keyboard-shortcuts/) Shahed Nasser  

🛠 Code & Tools 

[![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/dyratqrzaiguq6sconp3.jpg)](https://volta.sh/)  

[Volta 2.0: Install and Run JavaScript Tools Quickly](https://volta.sh/) — A long-standing Rust powered tool for installing and switching JavaScript related tools (like Node, TypeScript, Yarn, etc.) … _“no matter the package manager, Node runtime, or OS.”_ [GitHub repo.](https://github.com/volta-cli/volta) 

Volta   

[Floating UI: Positioning for Tooltips, Popovers, Dropdowns, etc.](https://www.floating-ui.com/) — A library to create ‘floating’ elements such as tooltips, popovers, and dropdowns. Essentially a next-gen [Popper](https://popper.js.org/) which it now officially succeeds. 

atomiks   

[😘 Kiss Bugs Goodbye](https://www.qawolf.com/?utm_campaign=KissBugsGoodbye08112024&utm_source=jsweekly&utm_medium=newsletter) — Get 80% automated E2E web and mobile app coverage in under four months with [QA Wolf](https://www.qawolf.com/?utm_campaign=KissBugsGoodbye08112024&utm_source=jsweekly&utm_medium=newsletter) . With QA cycles complete in minutes (not days), bugs don’t stand a chance. [Schedule a demo](https://www.qawolf.com/?utm_campaign=KissBugsGoodbye08112024&utm_source=jsweekly&utm_medium=newsletter%0D%0A). 

QA Wolf sponsor   

[React Figma: Use Components as a Source for Figma Designs](https://react-figma.dev/) — A lot of folks use Figma to mock up designs for their React components, but what about the other way around? Use React components as a source for your designs in Figma! [GitHub repo.](https://github.com/react-figma/react-figma) 

Ilya Lesik   

- [Ky 1.6](https://github.com/sindresorhus/ky) – Simple HTTP client based upon Fetch for browsers, Node & Deno.
- [True Myth 8.0](https://github.com/true-myth/true-myth) – Safe, idiomatic null and error handling in TypeScript with `Maybe` and`Result`types.
- [Protobuf-ES 2.0](https://buf.build/blog/protobuf-es-v2) – Fully compliant Protobuf implementation for JS/TS.
- 🕹️ [Kontra 10.0](https://straker.github.io/kontra/) – Lightweight gaming micro-library, optimized for [js13kGames.](https://js13kgames.com/)
- [React Tooltip 5.28](https://github.com/ReactTooltip/react-tooltip) – A tooltip component, surprisingly. ([Demo.](https://react-tooltip.com/))
- [express-validator 7.2](https://github.com/express-validator/express-validator) – Express.js middleware for[validator.js.](https://github.com/validatorjs/validator.js)
- [jscodeshift 17.0](https://github.com/facebook/jscodeshift/releases/tag/v17.0.0) – JavaScript codemod toolkit from Facebook.
- 🌍 [Turf.js 7.1](https://turfjs.org/) – Modular geospatial analysis engine.
- [Marked 14.0](https://github.com/markedjs/marked) – Fast Markdown compiler / parser.         

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