July Baseline digest: Intl.Locale and rect() cross the line

The edition published on August 10 moves Intl.Locale into newly available — a standard way to parse, modify, and inspect Unicode language and region tags, useful anywhere dates, numbers, and currencies are formatted without an extra library. Array.fromAsync(), which turns asynchronous data streams into an array, and the CSS rect() function, which describes rectangular shapes for clip-path and offset-path far more readably than going through polygon(), both moved to widely available. An updated MDN guide to choosing image formats shipped alongside the digest.

The July edition of the monthly roundup was published on August 10. It is short but useful, because it brings two things that directly reduce the need for libraries. Newly available Intl.Locale entered newly available, a standard way to parse, modify, and inspect Unicode language and region tags. Until now that meant parsing strings by hand or reaching for a library. Widely available Array.fromAsync() turns asynchronous data streams into an array, behaving like Array.from() but over async iterators. The CSS rect() function sets insets from the containing block's edges directly, describing rectangular shapes for clip-path and offset-path far more readably than the earlier approach. An updated MDN guide to choosing image formats shipped alongside the digest, with a browser support overview.