Reference
Technology status
Every API, library and platform covered on this site, and what has happened to it since the guide was written. Checked against vendor documentation as of August 2026.
31
Still current
22
Superseded
11
Removed
Android
Guides in Android →| Technology | Status | Replaced by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AsyncTask |
Superseded Android 11 (API 30) |
Kotlin coroutines, or java.util.concurrent for Java projects | Deprecated for leaking activities and swallowing exceptions on the default executor. |
| ListView / GridView |
Superseded RecyclerView, 2014 |
RecyclerView with a LayoutManager | View recycling and the adapter contract carry over almost unchanged. |
| ExpandableListView |
Superseded RecyclerView, 2014 |
RecyclerView with multiple view types, or nested lists | — |
| ViewPager |
Superseded ViewPager2, 2019 |
ViewPager2 | Built on RecyclerView; adds vertical paging and right-to-left support. |
| PagerTabStrip / PagerTitleStrip |
Superseded Material Components |
TabLayout attached to a ViewPager2 | — |
| Framework ActionBar |
Superseded AppCompat |
androidx Toolbar / MaterialToolbar | The framework ActionBar is not themable across versions; the AndroidX one is. |
| Loader framework (LoaderManager, CursorLoader) |
Superseded Android 9 (API 28) |
ViewModel with LiveData or Kotlin Flow | The lifecycle-aware loading idea survived; this implementation of it did not. |
| IntentService |
Superseded Android 11 (API 30) |
WorkManager for deferrable work, foreground services for the rest | Background execution limits from API 26 are what made it unworkable. |
| SharedPreferences |
Superseded Jetpack DataStore, 2020 |
Jetpack DataStore (Preferences or Proto) | Still works and is still everywhere; DataStore is the recommendation for new code. |
| Direct SQLite (SQLiteOpenHelper) |
Superseded Room, 2017 |
Room | Room compiles the same SQL but checks it at build time. |
| Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) |
Removed Shut down 2019 |
Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) | The service no longer accepts registrations. Guides pruned. |
| Parse (hosted service) |
Removed Shut down January 2017 |
Parse Platform self-hosted, or Firebase | The open-source server continues; the hosted backend the guides used does not. |
| PhoneGap / PhoneGap Build |
Removed Discontinued October 2020 |
Apache Cordova, or Capacitor | Cordova itself is still maintained; Adobe’s distribution and build service are not. |
| HierarchyViewer |
Removed Removed from the SDK |
Layout Inspector in Android Studio | — |
| Intents and intent filters | Current | — | Background broadcast restrictions apply from API 26 onward. |
| Services and bound services | Current | — | Foreground service types are mandatory from API 34. |
| AIDL and Binder IPC | Current | — | Unchanged; still the substrate the whole platform sits on. |
| Content providers | Current | — | Scoped storage from API 29 changes what they may expose. |
| Handler, Looper, MessageQueue | Current | — | — |
| GestureDetector and touch events | Current | pointerInput in Jetpack Compose, for Compose UIs | The View-system pipeline described is unchanged. |
| adb | Current | — | Wireless debugging is built into the developer options from Android 11. |
| View system (XML layouts) |
Superseded Jetpack Compose, 2021 |
Jetpack Compose | The largest gap on this site: every Android guide here predates Compose. |
HTML5
Guides in HTML5 →| Technology | Status | Replaced by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canvas 2D context | Current | — | Unchanged. These guides are as correct now as when written. |
| Web Audio API | Current | — | AudioWorklet replaced ScriptProcessorNode for custom processing. |
| requestAnimationFrame | Current | — | — |
| HTML5 form constraint validation | Current | — | — |
| Mobile audio autoplay restrictions | Current | — | Still gated on a user gesture; the workarounds described still apply. |
| Canvas for games | Current | WebGL2 or WebGPU for anything heavier | WebGPU is the current direction for GPU work in the browser. |
CSS
Guides in CSS →| Technology | Status | Replaced by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| backdrop-filter | Current | — | Was experimental when written; now supported across all major engines. |
| touch-action | Current | — | — |
| box-shadow, gradients, filters | Current | — | — |
| CSS animations and transitions | Current | — | Scroll-driven animations are the notable addition since. |
| Vendor prefixes (-webkit-) | Superseded | Unprefixed properties; autoprefixer where support demands it | The prefix tables in these guides are mostly historical now. |
| Float and positioning layout |
Superseded Flexbox and Grid |
Flexbox, Grid, and container queries | A gap: the layout guides here predate Grid entirely. |
| OOCSS / BEM / SMACSS | Current | — | BEM is still widely used; CSS Modules and utility-first CSS now sit alongside it. |
| node-sass |
Removed Deprecated |
dart-sass (the `sass` package) | Anything invoking node-sass will not install on a current Node. |
JavaScript
Guides in JavaScript →| Technology | Status | Replaced by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| document.execCommand |
Superseded Deprecated |
The async Clipboard API (navigator.clipboard) | execCommand still works in practice but is specified as deprecated. |
| ReactDOM.unmountComponentAtNode |
Removed React 18 |
root.unmount() on a root from createRoot | — |
| ReactDOM.render |
Removed React 18 |
createRoot(container).render() | — |
| React legacy context (childContextTypes) |
Removed React 16.3 introduced the replacement |
createContext with a Provider and the useContext hook | — |
| Material-UI v0 (LeftNav, AppBar) |
Removed Renamed to MUI |
MUI Drawer and AppBar | The component names in these guides no longer exist. |
| Class components and lifecycle methods |
Superseded React 16.8 hooks, 2019 |
Function components with hooks | A gap: every React guide here predates hooks. |
| Browserify | Superseded | Vite, esbuild or Rollup | — |
| Babel 6 |
Superseded Babel 7, 2018 |
Current Babel, or esbuild/SWC for transpilation | Guide pruned — the in-browser workflow it described is gone. |
| Underscore.string |
Superseded ES2015+ |
Native String methods (padStart, trimEnd, replaceAll) | — |
| CoffeeScript |
Superseded ES2015+ |
TypeScript, or modern JavaScript | Guides pruned. |
| jQuery | Superseded | querySelectorAll, fetch, classList and the native DOM | Still maintained; rarely chosen for new work. |
| postMessage / cross-origin messaging | Current | — | Origin checking remains as important as the guide says. |
| WebSockets | Current | — | — |
| Node.js core APIs | Current | — | ESM is the default module system for new projects. |
Backend
Guides in Backend →| Technology | Status | Replaced by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHPExcel |
Removed Archived 2019 |
PhpSpreadsheet | Direct successor from the same authors; the API is close but not identical. |
| Rails and Rack | Current | — | Rack 3 changed the response-body contract for middleware. |
| RSpec mocks and stubs | Current | — | — |
| Devise and OmniAuth | Current | — | — |
| Laravel | Current | — | Auth scaffolding moved to Breeze/Jetstream since these were written. |
| MySQL | Current | — | — |
| AMP |
Superseded 2021 |
Core Web Vitals on the canonical page | No longer required for Google Top Stories, and no longer a ranking factor. |
Tools
Guides in Tools →| Technology | Status | Replaced by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome DevTools | Current | — | Panels have moved; the techniques hold. |
| ffmpeg | Current | — | — |
| ImageMagick / GhostScript | Current | — | ImageMagick 7 changed the CLI entry point from `convert` to `magick`. |
| grep, fuser and core Unix utilities | Current | — | — |
| Git and GitHub | Current | — | — |
| Sublime Text | Superseded | VS Code, or a JetBrains IDE | Guide pruned — a 2014 theme roundup for an editor most developers have left. |
| Genymotion ADB conflict |
Removed Fixed upstream |
The bundled Android Studio emulator | Guide pruned — the version conflict it works around no longer occurs. |