Web Tools #359 - CSS Tools, IDEs, a Must-Have JS Book

Once in a while a JavaScript book comes along that absolutely has to be on the shelf of every software engineer on the planet. And if I was to pick one JavaScript book that falls under that category, it would have to be JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, by David Flanagan.

As you may already know, David has finally gotten around to putting out a 7th edition of his now-legendary tome. Believe it or not, it's been 9 years since the 6th edition came out, so this was long overdue. But to be fair, this isn't the type of book that you can whip up in a summer, so I can see why it took so long to attempt another update.

If you'd like some info on the changes in this version, here are some useful links from David's new blog:

• The copy that appears on the back of the book, summarizing what's covered.
• A post specifically covering the extent of the changes in this edition including the decision to remove the reference section, which trimmed the book by about 400 pages.
• The official O'Reilly page for the book which has links to errata and sample code.

Now on to this week's tools!
 

CSS and HTML Tools

The New Tab Page You’ll Actually Use
The minimal new tab page you’ll actually use. Chrome and Firefox extensions available. sponsored 

Gradient Hunt
Another gradient inspiration gallery that lets you copy and paste the CSS for any of the existing beautiful categorized gradients, or download as PNG.

Easings
Generate custom Bézier curves, or try out the predefined ones, then copy the code to use in your transitions or other effects.

FormKing
Easy, fast, secure forms for static websites. Includes a free plan with unlimited forms and unlimited submissions.

LaTeX.css
An almost class-less CSS library that turns your HTML document into a website that looks like a LaTeX document.

mono/color
A very small, responsive, dual-themed CSS-only framework.

XP.css
A design system for building faithful recreations of old UIs (i.e. UIs that look like Windows XP).

Otion
Atomic CSS-in-JS with a featherweight runtime.

Hero Generator
Interactive tool to generate a Hero Image header section for a web page, you know, to make sure all websites looks the same (kidding, it's actually a useful tool if you need to do this often).

CSS Foldable Display polyfill
A polyfill for the proposed CSS Foldable Display extensions.

stylemug
A fast CSS-in-JS library that extracts atomic CSS rules to a .css file.

instant.page
Now at version 5. This drop-in library makes your pages faster by preloading links as the user starts to click.

Sail UI
Basic UI components for Tailwind.

Devsync
Chrome extension to visually edit CSS and live-sync the result with your code editor.

Text Editors, IDEs, etc.

Devplayground.io
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code playground for quick debug, ideation, and experimentation. Invite friends and start coding together.

Codespace
A beautifully organized, offline-first code snippet manager for Mac, Windows, and Ubuntu.

i18n Ally
All-in-one internationalization extension for VS Code.

Variable
Real-time code collaboration tool with team features, template creation, live preview, and more.

sciter
Build cross platform desktop applications with HTML, CSS and script.

lite
A lightweight text editor written in Lua.

GitHub Codespaces
In early access. Get the full Visual Studio Code experience without leaving GitHub.

Winddown
VS Code extension that encourages you to take a break. Be reminded to get off the screen without being interrupted. After 25 minutes, slowly fades out the colors until you take your hands off the keyboard for a moment.

WebStorm
The popular IDE for JavaScript development has been recently updated.

Lens
The only IDE you’ll ever need to take control of your Kubernetes clusters.

jinbin
A pastebin app that deletes the paste after 24 hours (or less, which you can specify). Also includes syntax highlighting when you define the language used.

The Uncategorizables

Tech Productivity
A brief weekly newsletter for tech professionals. Features articles, tips, and tools for improved productivity.   promoted

Dataflow Kit
A web scraper to extract content from web pages using a visual point-and-click toolkit.

SEOWL
Toolkit for SEO professionals for efficient SEO analytics and monitoring.

PDFBlade
Developer-friendly HTML to PDF API. Convert URLs and plain HTML into PDF files using a simple request to our robust API.

DID.app
Single-click passwordless authentication for your apps and sites.

Free The Docs
Instantly convert Google Documents into reStructuredText (a file format for textual data used primarily in the Python programming language).

Million Short
A search engine that lets you remove the top 100, 1k, 10k, 100k, or 1m results from the search. Pretty interesting if you want some deep results.

Docup
A single JavaScript file that fetches a Markdown file and renders it as beautiful one-page documentation.

G Desktop Suite
Google's apps (Drive, Docs, Sheets, etc) as an all-in-one native desktop app, built with Electron.

Dunked
A simple way for designers to build an online portfolio to showcase your work.

MarkUp
Allows you to turn your website or any image into a dynamic canvas ready for feedback and collaboration.

EngChannel
Personalized feedback via code reviews to help you become a software engineer. Ideal for students and others new to programming and development.

A Tweet for Thought

You might want to read Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke's Tweet thread announcing his company's move to 'digital by default' (that is, no physical office, all remote).
 

Send Me Your Tools!

Made something? Send links via Direct Message on Twitter @WebToolsWeekly (details here). No tutorials or articles, please. If you have any suggestions for improvement or corrections, feel free to reply to this email.
 

Before I Go...

If you're looking for a name for your next side project or startup, you might want to check out One Word Domains, a collection of available one-word domains for various TLDs.

Thanks to everyone for subscribing and reading!

Keep tooling,
Louis
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@WebToolsWeekly
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