14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook has released version 15.0 of its React JavaScript framework, which comes with three major updates.
The first, as you have already noticed is the new version number. Since its launch, the framework has been using a 0.x version number for all releases, with the latest being the 0.14.x branch, to highlight the fact that it's still a product that's being developed, not yet ready for production environments.
After realizing that its developers, and many other around the Web, have been using React in production apps for the past years without any major problems, Facebook finally admitted it was time to remove the unstable tag, and start using a version number that reflected the framework's maturity.
So starting with this release, the version number changed, and instead of version 1.0.0, which would have been a natural evolution, Facebook decided to remove the zero from the front of the version number, and marked this new release as 15.0.0.
The second major React change is in regards to supported browsers, and Facebook decided that it's no longer a wise choice to support Internet Explorer 8, a decision already taken by the AngularJS and jQuery teams in the past.
The third major change is that React now includes better integration for the SVG spec, Facebook adding support for all the SVG attributes that are recognized by today’s modern browsers.
In other JavaScript news...
After looking for new owners last November, Grunt.js has found a new home, and the project has reached a stable version with the release of Grunt 1.0. Just be advised that Grunt 1.0.0 will no longer support Node.js v0.8.
TypeScript is nearing version 2.0, and Microsoft has provided a roadmap of things to come.
Google has been doing the same thing and offered a quick preview of Angular Material 2.0, its official UI framework for using Material Design together with AngularJS.
Last but not least, Flickr open-sourced the code which its developers have used for the past years to display images as a justified, responsive grid on the official site.