WebDev Weekly - Issue 62
This week we've got 11 links from around the Internet. The big one is htmx 4.0 - a proper rethink rather than a version bump, with explicit attribute inheritance and a fetch()-based core, and a refreshingly cautious migration plan: npm keeps 2.x as latest until early 2027, so nobody gets upgraded by accident. Elsewhere, Google has quietly finished off Manifest V2 extensions, taking uBlock Origin with it - installed copies keep working for now, but they can't update, and I suspect this story will run and run. And if you read just one thing this week, make it Chris Coyier's tour of what HTML can do in mid-2026 - I'd wager at least three of the twelve features he covers are news to you. Enjoy.
Articles
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New Things You Should Know About HTML Here in Mid 2026
blog.master.dev
Chris Coyier surveys a dozen genuinely new HTML capabilities, from <geolocation> and customisable select to HTML-in-canvas, invokers and focusgroup: the single best catch-up read this fortnight.
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How we could save petabytes of cache storage with Zstandard and Pingora
blog.cloudflare.com
Infrastructure deep dive on compressing text assets inside the proxy for a ~2.8x storage cut; a good read on trade-offs at CDN scale.
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How HTML to PDF Conversion Actually Works: Rendering Engines, Text Objects and Fonts | HTML to Image
html2img.com
How HTML to PDF conversion works inside the engine: the render pipeline, what a text layer really is, font subsetting, the raster fallback, and three commands to check any PDF.
News
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Google Has Removed MV2 Extensions from the Chrome Web Store, Including uBlock Origin
webiterate.dev
The Manifest V2 era formally ends: installed extensions keep working but cannot update or be reinstalled, and the knock-on effects hit every Chromium-based browser; this is the story readers will be arguing about.
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New to the web platform in August from web.dev
web.dev
The monthly Baseline roundup:
text-boxtrimming andsibling-count()/sibling-index()go cross-browser, with a preview of Chrome 153’s<camera>and<microphone>elements.
Tools
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htmx 4.0.0 has been released!
four.htmx.org
A major rethink of one of the most-loved libraries in the space: explicit attribute inheritance, a fetch()-based core, native morphing swaps and
<hx-partial>, plus an unusually careful migration plan (npm keeps 2.x as latest until early 2027). -
MicroLighter - A zero-dep syntax highlighter
davatron5000.github.io
Syntax highlighting via the Custom Highlights API instead of span soup, at 5.2 KB gzipped; a neat, modern take on an old problem.
Tutorials
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Balancing flex items with flex-wrap: balance
ishadeed.com
Interactive deep dive on the new property that stops orphaned items on wrapped flex lines, honest about support (Chrome 150+ only) and offering five fallbacks.
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Creating Web Widgets Using the Document Picture-in-Picture API
css-tricks.com
Practical tutorial on floating always-on-top widgets built from ordinary HTML/CSS/JS, worked through a live stock-ticker example.
AI
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Understanding ChatGPT Work
simonwillison.net
Simon Willison's typically level-headed teardown of OpenAI’s new agentic Work product (code execution, headless browsing, site deployment) and what it means for developer workflows.
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Introducing Sandcastle
blog.master.dev
A low-level TypeScript framework for running multiple AI coding agents in parallel across git worktrees; interesting for readers experimenting with agent workflows.