---
title: "Babel 8.0, Vite 8.1, and TypeScript 7.0 RC"
publication: "JavaScript Weekly"
issue: 791
published_at: "2026-06-23"
canonical_url: "https://javascriptweekly.com/issues/791"
---

Plus a signal implementation in 33 bytes, a technique to use 90% less memory, and GitHub releases actions/checkout v7.        

#​791 — June 23, 2026 

[Read on the Web](https://javascriptweekly.com/issues/791)  

Together with [![Greptile\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/c_fill,g_auto,w_1280,h_308/co_white,e_outline:25/mvysygc5u6xqa3gvmetk.png)](https://www.greptile.com?utm_source=javascriptweekly&utm_medium=paid-community&utm_campaign=javascriptweekly_primary_jun23)   

JavaScript Weekly 

[![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/nmuo98ex7rzsd4bj7hcu.jpg)](https://docs.deno.com/runtime/desktop/)  

[Desktop Apps With `deno desktop`](https://docs.deno.com/runtime/desktop/) — Deno 2.9 (or the 'canary' build _now_) can turn JavaScript projects into self-contained apps on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Unlike Electron, you can opt to use the default OS WebView _or_ a bundled Chromium backend, plus you get cross-compilation and automatic support for apps built on frameworks like Next.js and SvelteKit. 

The Deno Project  

📉 It's not in the post, but a `--compress` option gets packaged app sizes down a lot – from 65MB to 19MB in my test with a basic app.  [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/c_limit,w_480,h_480,q_auto/copm/e4cf1123.png)](https://www.greptile.com?utm_source=javascriptweekly&utm_medium=paid-community&utm_campaign=javascriptweekly_primary_jun23) 

[Catch Runtime Bugs Before Your JS PR Merges](https://www.greptile.com?utm_source=javascriptweekly&utm_medium=paid-community&utm_campaign=javascriptweekly_primary_jun23) — Some JavaScript bugs only show up after the app runs. Greptile reviews each PR with full repo context, runs the code in a sandbox, and returns screenshots, logs, and traces as proof of what broke. Use Greptile in GitHub, GitLab, or from your terminal. 

Greptile sponsor   

[Babel 8.0 Released: The JavaScript Transpiler](https://babeljs.io/blog/2026/06/16/8.0.0/) — It’s been _eight years_ since [Babel 7.0](https://babeljs.io/blog/2018/08/27/7.0.0/), and despite the rise of tools like SWC and Oxc, weekly downloads of the `@babel` packages have increased 380x since. v8.0 is a modernization release that goes ESM-only and targets ~ES2023 by default (vs ES5 before). 

Babel Team   

[TypeScript 7.0 Release Candidate](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/typescript/announcing-typescript-7-0-rc/) — A step closer for the Go-powered TypeScript compiler that promises ~10x faster build performance. _(I've seen people on social media getting very excited by this.)_ 

Daniel Rosenwasser (Microsoft)   

**IN BRIEF:** 

- Cloudflare has added the ability to [create and deploy Workers on 'temporary accounts'](https://blog.cloudflare.com/temporary-accounts/). Ostensibly 'for AI agents', but you can use them yourself too, and get a Worker running for 60 minutes with no strings attached.
- TC39 delegate Luca Casonato has made [a proposal to add built-in localized time formatting](https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/12591) to `<time>`, akin to GitHub's [`<relative-time>` element](https://github.com/github/relative-time-element).
- 🤖 [MDN has introduced an official MCP server](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/blog/introducing-mdn-mcp-server/) to provide better access to MDN's up-to-date JS and frontend docs to coding agents.
- The Bun team has proposed [adding shared-memory threads to JavaScriptCore](https://github.com/oven-sh/WebKit/pull/249) (a more traditional threading approach versus [worker threads](https://nodejs.org/api/worker_threads.html#worker-threads)).    

**RELEASES:** 

- ⭐ [Vite 8.1](https://vite.dev/blog/announcing-vite8-1) – Adds experimental support for 'bundled dev mode' which radically speeds up dev server startup and full reloads on large apps. Also adds [WASM/ESM integration](https://github.com/WebAssembly/esm-integration/blob/main/proposals/esm-integration/README.md) support.
- ⭐ [Astro 7.0](https://astro.build/blog/astro-7/)– The popular web framework gets faster build times, with `.astro` compilation and Markdown/MDX processing going through a Rust-powered pipeline. _Advanced Routing_ also gives you full control over the request pipeline.
- [pnpm 11.7](https://pnpm.io/blog/releases/11.7) and [11.8](https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/releases/tag/v11.8.0) – `pnpm install` gets a `--dry-run` option, `--frozen-store` adds support for read-only package stores, and more.
- [Node.js v26.3.1 (Current)](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v26.3.1), [v24.17.0 (LTS)](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v24.17.0), and [v22.23.0 (LTS)](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v22.23.0)  

📖 Articles and Videos  

[How an Underrated Refactor Saved 90% Memory Usage](https://tanstack.com/blog/tanstack-table-v9-memory-performance) — The tale of how [TanStack Table](https://tanstack.com/table/latest) v9 uses less memory than v8 on large tables, thanks to a simple idea: storing methods on shared prototypes instead of creating them for every object. Benchmarks included, plus a pattern other libraries can copy. 

Kevin Van Cott (TanStack)   

[You Already Know Enough JavaScript to Ship a Real Mobile App](https://try.expo.dev/jsweekly) — Build for iOS and Android from one codebase with React. Expo handles builds, the App Store, and updates. 

Expo sponsor   

📄 [`window.showDirectoryPicker` Opens Up a Whole New World](https://steveharrison.dev/showdirectorypicker-opens-up-a-whole-new-world/) – Chrome 86+ added a way to [let users open a local directory](https://web.dev/patterns/files/open-a-directory) for use by webapps. Steve Harrison 

📄 [What are Git Worktrees, And Why Should I Use Them?](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github-copilot/what-are-git-worktrees-and-why-should-i-use-them/) – A decade-old `git` feature that's seen a boost in the AI agent era. Cassidy Williams (GitHub) 

📄 [TanStack Start: A Mental Model for Next.js Devs](https://www.adarsha.dev/blog/tanstack-mental-model-for-nextjs-developers) – Maps TanStack Start onto Next.js concepts with side-by-side code comparisons. Adarsha Acharya  

🛠 Code & Tools 

[![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/nxajoklg677glwqkf5yz.jpg)](https://fullcalendar.io/)  

[FullCalendar 7.0: A Full Sized JavaScript Calendar](https://fullcalendar.io/) — A Google Calendar-style experience for your own apps. Works with React, Vue and Angular ([v7.0](https://github.com/fullcalendar/fullcalendar/releases/tag/v7.0.0) adds Angular 22 support), but can be used with plain JavaScript. [Here’s a demo](https://themes.fullcalendar.io/) where you can play with the themes and styling approaches. MIT licensed with commercial extensions. 

FullCalendar LLC   

🤖 [Eve: Like Next.js, But for Building Agents](https://vercel.com/blog/introducing-eve) — A new framework from Vercel that provides Next.js-esque structure for building AI-powered agents using TypeScript and Markdown. 

Vercel   

[Your Charts Endpoint Doesn't Need a Second Database](https://www.tigerdata.com/go/trial?utm_source=content-syndication&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=javascript-weekly-newsletter) — It's the query behind it, not the render. TimescaleDB extends Postgres for analytics. [Get $1000 credit to start](https://www.tigerdata.com/go/trial?utm_source=content-syndication&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=javascript-weekly-newsletter). 

Tiger Data (creators of TimescaleDB) sponsor   

[ForesightJS 4: Predictive User Intent Library for the Web](https://foresightjs.com/) — Predicts intent from pointer and keyboard cues to prefetch content before it's needed for a snappier user experience. [v4.0](https://github.com/spaansba/ForesightJS/releases/tag/V4.0) adds official React and Vue packages with [a declarative `<Foresight>` component](https://github.com/spaansba/ForesightJS/releases/tag/V4.2.0) in v4.2. 

ForesightJS, Inc.   

[Prop For That: What JS Knows, Now CSS Knows](https://nerdy.dev/prop-for-that) — Provides CSS with access to values you'd often need JS to provide (e.g. pointer position, time, a slider’s value). Add attributes to HTML and live values show up as custom properties, bridging the JS–CSS gap. [The demo page](https://prop-for-that.netlify.app/) is neat. 

Adam Argyle   

[Kage: Shadow a Website for Offline Viewing](https://kage.tamnd.com/) — A tool to clone a site and serve it up for offline viewing. The difference vs _"Save As"_ is it handles JS-rendered sites by saving the DOM using a headless browser. [Repo.](https://github.com/tamnd/kage) 

Duc-Tam Nguyen   

[goja: An ECMAScript/JavaScript Engine in Pure Go](https://github.com/dop251/goja) — A mature JavaScript engine for adding scripting functionality to Go apps without CGo/V8. 

Dmitry Panov   

- [Anime.js 4.5](https://github.com/juliangarnier/anime/releases/tag/v4.5.0) – The powerful animation engine [adds adapters](https://animejs.com/documentation/adapters/) to support animating non-DOM objects like Three.js meshes or a canvas context.
- [Ink 7.1](https://github.com/vadimdemedes/ink/releases/tag/v7.1.0) – The popular TUI renderer [adds `suspendTerminal()`](https://github.com/vadimdemedes/ink/pull/972) for temporarily handing the terminal over to a child process (like an editor).
- [Nuxt UI 4.9](https://github.com/nuxt/ui/releases/tag/v4.9.0) – The Vue UI library improves its calendar component, adds uniform focus styles, and adds `useTour` for driving guided tours.
- [Nx 23.0](https://github.com/nrwl/nx/releases/tag/23.0.0) – The monorepo tool's yearly major. Now `nx migrate` can hand migrations off to AI agents.
- ☀️ [SunCalc 2.0](https://github.com/mourner/suncalc) – Calculate the position and phase of the Sun and Moon.      

📰 Classifieds   

Flaky tests slowing down dev? [Meticulous](https://www.meticulous.ai/?utm_source=jsweekly&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=26q2&utm_content=classified) gives engineers confidence to ship faster by autonomously testing every edge case of your web app. 

--- 

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--- 

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--- 

🦊 Extract tables, text, forms, and images from any PDF as structured JSON. [Foxit's API](https://developer-api.foxit.com/developer-blogs/api-guides-tutorials/pdf-structural-extraction-engine/?utm_source=draftdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=jsweekly_20260623) combines OCR, layout recognition, and AI parsing.     

📢 Elsewhere in the ecosystem 

[![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/nxgy3hvrsiv7govtlok8.jpg)](https://gist.github.com/GulgDev/7b113b5e971682a6512d96c9c0fdf6da)  

- A developer [code-golfed a signal implementation](https://gist.github.com/GulgDev/7b113b5e971682a6512d96c9c0fdf6da) to just 33 bytes _(above)_. I had to stare at it for a solid minute before it clicked, but mercifully, a Redditor [breaks down exactly what's going on](https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/1uc0scy/33byte_js_signal_implementation/ot4dm0o/).
- 🔒 GitHub has [released `actions/checkout` v7](https://github.blog/changelog/2026-06-18-safer-pull_request_target-defaults-for-github-actions-checkout/) that _"refuses common pwn request patterns by default"_ including refusing to fetch fork pull request code in `pull_request_target` and `workflow_run` workflows.
- If you're a GitHub project maintainer getting flooded with PRs, [GitHub now has the ability to limit the number of PRs](https://github.blog/open-source/maintainers/how-pull-request-limits-are-cutting-down-the-noise/) any single user can open at once.
- Tim Wehrle [stored a website in a favicon.](https://www.timwehrle.de/blog/i-stored-a-website-in-a-favicon/) Why? Why not?         

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