Whats New in Angular 8?

Ah, Angular 8!

The version where things get a bit fancier, a little faster, and developers collectively sighed in relief at some much-needed improvements.

🚀 New Features in Angular 8

1. Differential Loading of JavaScript

Angular 8 introduced differential loading, which means your modern browsers get modern JS, while older browsers get the legacy stuff. This improves performance significantly.

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<script type="module" src="modern-bundle.js"></script>
<script nomodule src="legacy-bundle.js"></script>

2. Lazy Loading with Dynamic Imports

Previously, lazy loading used a string-based syntax. Now, it’s more TypeScript-y and supports dynamic imports!

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const routes: Routes = [
  { path: 'lazy', loadChildren: () => import('./lazy/lazy.module').then(m => m.LazyModule) }
];

3. Web Workers for Performance

Need to offload heavy computations to a separate thread? Web Workers are officially supported now!

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ng generate web-worker my-worker

4. Bazel Support (Experimental)

Bazel allows faster incremental builds and better dependency management. It’s still experimental but promising!

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"builders": {
  "build": "@angular/bazel"
}

5. Ivy Rendering Engine (Still in Preview)

Ivy was getting polished in Angular 8 but wasn’t the default yet. It improves bundle size and debugging!

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{ "enableIvy": true }

6. Support for TypeScript 3.4+

Angular 8 brings support for the latest TypeScript goodies, like const assertions:

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const numbers = [10, 20, 30] as const;

7. Location Strategies Improved

Base href handling got better for lazy-loaded modules!

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providers: [{ provide: APP_BASE_HREF, useValue: '/' }]

📜 Angular Versions and Features

🔗 Reference Links

• Angular 8 Official Docs
• Angular Wikipedia
• Angular GitHub

📝 Key Ideas Summary