React Activity, Storybook 9 Beta, and AI as a Collaborator, Not a Crutch

Front-End Fire

The React team’s been on a roll lately with new experimental updates. Last episode we covered View Transitions, and today we discuss Activity. Activity is a component to hide and show parts of the UI while maintaining the component’s state and continuing to render at a lower priority when it’s not visible on screen.

Storybook 9 beta is out now, and it seems to be transitioning from a frontend workshop for building UI components in isolation to a one-stop shop for all your frontend testing needs.

And Microsoft recently released a paper from researchers at Cambridge and Carnegie Mellon studying how AI coding assistants have allowed developers to engage in less critical thinking and independent problem-solving, and how the skills to do both could deteriorate if this over-reliance on AI continues unchecked.

News:

• Paige - Storybook 9 beta
• Jack - React
• TJ - The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking and Avoiding Skill Atrophy in the Age of AI

Bonus News:

• Ladybird new independent web browser
• MTMC-16
• Apple changes App Store rules to allow external purchases

What Makes Us Happy this Week:

• Paige - The Night Manager series
• Jack - Raycast
• TJ - Linkin Park World Tour

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-end Fire website
• Blue Collar Coder on YouTube
• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
• Reach out via email
• Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire
• Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast