Show HN: A tool that shows the stable version number for frameworks/libraries

• Bootstrap

  530 167,350 9.6 JavaScript

  The most popular HTML, CSS, and JavaScript framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web.

  

I created this tool when writing a blog post on how to use Airtable as a database for a Jekyll website. Personally, I don't like tutorials that build to-do apps (or now, Wordle clones) as I think they are often detached from real world and thus tend to skip important topics. So I decided to build something real that I myself might end up using as a developer.

The demo is now live and it tells you the version numbers for a limited set of things (like top 10 GitHub repositories, plus a few other things). Posting it here so that I can get some feedback from other developers. If others also find this useful, I will continue the work.

Here's my pitch for why it might be useful:

1. It's a fast way to learn what's the current version of something. If you go to the home page and start typing, you will get it in 2 actions (given the thing you're after is in my database). If you type something like up-to.date/react in the browser, it now becomes a single-action process.

2. Apart from being fast, this has a potential prevent mistakes. Many developers trust Google or GitHub as the source of truth on these matters and will not look in other places. But that could lead to mistakes.

Some examples of wrong answers I am getting today (May 5, 2022):

- Bootstrap: if you go to https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap, you will think that Bootstrap's current version is 4.6.1, but if you then go to https://getbootstrap.com, you will know that it's actually 5.1.3

• Ruby on Rails

  467 54,865 10.0 Ruby

  Ruby on Rails

  

- Rails: if you google Ruby on Rails, the special card on the right will tell you the latest version is 7.0.2.3, but according to https://rubyonrails.org, it's now 7.0.2.4 already

One other thing I want to mention:

Clicking search results on the homepage takes you to a dedicated page. There, you will see an email signup form. I put it there in order to see actual interest: if people sign up, that's the best indicator for me that I should continue working on this project. But I am not asking you to enter your email in that form, only do it if you really wish to get updates on new releases.

Also, this is a static website so it uses a 3rd party tool for capturing emails. You guessed it right, that tool is also built by me.

• WorkOS

  workos.com sponsored

  The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

  

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