Hello, coders! In this article I am going to discuss all the versions of Angular and on the basis of this information I will help you to choose the most suitable one for you. 

Angular: brief overview

Let’s start with the short review of some key features of this framework.

What is Angular?

Angular is a framework developed by developers from Google, used mainly to create complex SPA (Single Page) and mobile applications using AJAX technology.

The main advantages of using Angular:

• Declarative code style
• Use of special directives
• Modularity
• Ease of testing
• Pre-made solutions that simplify development
• Directives used in the framework

Angular directives are additional attributes that extend standard HTML code and contain the prefix ng-. Among the most used and basic:

• ng-app – “wraps” the Angular application, starts it.
• ng-init – initializes program data
• ng-model – enters additional data into the program by linking the data.

Example of Angular’s work:

<div ng-app = “” ng-init = “firstName = ‘John'”>

<p> Enter your name: <input type = “text” ng-model = “firstName”> </p>

<p> You entered: {{firstName}} </p>

</div>

The ng-app directive tells Angular that the block is an Angular wrapper.

Data binding

As you can see, the expression {{FirstName}} is placed at the top of the code. It is used in AngularJS to bind data. Data binding is used to create a “bridge” between the ng-model and the output.

Modules in Angular

Modules are the form of organization of all processes in Angular. A module is a specific environment for individual information, such as directives, controllers, filters, and so on. It is described by the ng-module directive.

Angular controllers

The ng-controller directive defines the application controller. It is made by organizing the work of the controller that we established in order to control over the data in the program.

A list of all Angular Versions

Originally, the very first version of Angular is called AngularJS. It had such a name as JS stands for JavaScript. Though there nearly ten new updates released, AngularJS still remains one of the most popular frameworks in the development marketplace. 

The new implementation of AngularJS was originally called “Angular 2”, but that confused developers. In order to establish clarity, it was recommended that different names be used for the two frameworks.

Version 2

Angular 2 was announced at the ng-Europe conference in September 2014. The drastic changes in version 2.0 caused controversy among developers. The first beta version was released in December 2015 and the first release candidate in May 2016. The final version was published on September 14, 2016.

Version 4

Angular 4 was announced on December 13, 2016. Version number 3 was skipped because one of the Angular 2 NPM packages was already version v3.3.0. The final version was published on March 23, 2017. 

Version 5

On November 1, 2017, Angular 5 was released. The main improvements in Angular 5 included support for progressive web apps, a built-in optimizer and improvements related to material design.

Version 6

Angular 6 appeared on May 3, 2018. Angular Elements are now integrated in the framework. All framework packages are synchronized in version 6.0.0. Two new command line commands were introduced: ng update and ng add.

Version 7

On October 18, 2018, Angular 7 was released, which focused on performance improvements, innovations in Angular Material and CDS, virtual scrolling and other improvements. Typescript 3.1 and RxJS 6.3 were also used.

Version 8

Angular 8 was released on May 28, 2019, which focused on differential loading (smaller browser-specific script packages), incremental compilation and optimization by Ivy (beta), support for multithreading by web workers, adjustments to lazy loading of scripts and various extensions to Angular Command line (CLI), sets. Typescript 3.4, Node 12 and RxJS 6.5.1 are also used. There are also numerous minor changes in the Angular ecosystem.

Version 9

On February 6, 2020, Angular 9 was released a little later than it was expected. Ivy (incremental compilation and optimization) is now suitable for productive applications. This should make bundles up to 40% smaller and also much faster. Ivy also supports more efficient lazy loading so that not all packages need to be loaded when the applications start, only when they are in use. The integration of localization of the applications has also been improved and these are also only loaded when used. To do this, the application must be adapted to a new localization interface. At least Typescript 3.6 / 3.7 is required.

Version 10

Angular 10 was released on June 25, 2020. Due to the short time compared to the previous release, which brought significant changes, only minor changes and additions have been made. The clear focus in this release was on increasing quality. Over 2000 different improvements have been made and this will continue over the next few months. Angular Material 10 now includes a date range selection dialog. The strict mode has been significantly expanded. This mode makes it possible to create more maintainable applications and also catches some typical application defects in advance. Typescript 3.9, tslib 2.0 and tslint v6 are now supported. ES5 builds (for older browsers) are deactivated for new projects. Older browsers and rarely used browsers are also not supported in the standard settings. However, support can be activated. An existing Angular 9 application can be updated easily using the Angular “Update” tool.

Conclusion

To sum everything up, there are quite a big choice of Angular versions. All of them are good in their own way. But from my point of view, such releases as AngularJS and the latest 10th version remain now dominant among developers. 

Thank you for reading and good luck in your Angular development!