Alright, here we go again. It has been a while since the previous release and it's time for a big Winter update!
Quite a bit has happened since. I spent most of the intermediate time in consulting and training mode. Since I became a part of webpack core team, I've been pushing things forward in my own way. This has meant coordinating efforts around the new site of webpack and developing certain technology related to it.
We also launched something known as open collective for webpack. This makes it possible for individuals and companies to support the project in form of donations. The overall theme of this year has been in making webpack more sustainable as a project and scaling it from one person to many. By the looks of it we are actually succeeding in this goal.
You can get a better idea of the type of training I have been doing at [my presentation site](https://presentations.survivejs.com/). See especially [my slides on advanced webpack](http://presentations.survivejs.com/advanced-webpack/) as those complement the book material well. It probably goes without saying, but if you are interested in training on these topics, you know who to poke.
This time around I focused especially on getting the book up to date with upcoming webpack 2. The book uses webpack 2 syntax now. In addition, I went through quite a few issues I have on my list. All of this has translated into a nice list of improvements.
There is one new chapter that was gained through splitting Separating CSS into two shorter ones. The existing ones should be better than before as well. Thanks to the changes introduced with webpack 2, I could simply drop a part of the content.
Webpack 2 performs validation and simplifies environment handling greatly. Also the configuration format is a little neater in certain parts although there is still work left for webpack 3. I believe we can improve the way you configure webpack with little effort.
I still have quite a few issues on my list. This includes a couple of chapters and further improvements to the current content. If you have specific ideas, open an issue. That will give me a better idea on what kind of content to develop for the book.
1.4.2#In total 192 commits went to the book since the last release. You can find the important changes below. See GitHub for all changes. Remember especially the "Files changed" tab as it gives you a good overview of what's happening with the book.
--env.multiStep option of HotModuleReplacementPlugin as that doesn't work yet with webpack 2 and html-webpack-plugin.DefinePlugin is valuable.webpack.EnvironmentPlugin.[chunkhash:8]).ExtractTextPlugin for development. It's not compatible with HMR yet, although there's a PR in progress.--env.eslint --init.I have next two weeks to dedicate to this work. It is quite possible we will see an intermediate release or two before 2.0. But at least now we are in sync with webpack so that's great!
After 2.0, I can give the React book a big refresh.
Given webpack 2 isn't actually out yet, there still may be some rough edges. I've tried to annotate these as well as I can, but there still may be something. I'll fix potential issues in the next release.
If you want to support the development of the book, pick up a copy at Leanpub. A part of the income (around ~30%) goes to Tobias Koppers, the author of webpack. This is my way of supporting his work given mine builds on top of his. Literally most of the income goes to webpack developers now!
You can [support webpack through open collective](https://opencollective.com/webpack) too.