Hi CodeGeekz audience ! We are at the end of year and looking forward to upcoming festive season, but still embarked ourselves to bring you some useful and fresh development tools to simplify your work.
In this month’s edition we’ve included lots of productivity apps, frameworks, plugins, best practices guides, educational resources, testing tools, and much more.
If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured next month, tweet it to @codegeekz to be considered!
1. IBM Swift Sandbox
The IBM Swift Sandbox is an interactive website that lets you write Swift code and execute it in a server environment – on top of Linux! Each sandbox runs on IBM Cloud in a Docker container. Both the latest versions of Swift and its standard library are available for you to use. They’ve also provided a collection of sample programs for you to experiment with. Click Source Samples in the upper left corner to see the list of available samples.
2. LayersCSS
LayersCSS is Lightweight. Unobtrusive. Style-agnostic. Build your look on the web, not Twitter’s – and build it fluid. Layers CSS is a CSS framework aimed for practical use cases. It comes with a small footprint and zero bullshit.
3. InstantSearch.js
InstantSearch.js is a library of UI widgets to help you build the best instant-search experience with Algolia’s Hosted Search API. Your code is easy to write and maintain. instantsearch.js provides the glue between the different parts of your search page.
4. FontBase
FontBase is a blazing fast, beautiful and free font manager for Windows. There is a number of predefined collections, such as recently added fonts (really useful), Typekit fonts and favorites. You can also create as many collections as you like by yourself. Simply change the color, background, font size, line height and align of your fonts. Apply styles to the whole collection or just to individually selected fonts.
5. Toshi
Toshi is a complete implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, written in Ruby and backed by PostgreSQL. It provides a RESTful API that is ideal for building scalable web applications or analyzing blockchain data. Toshi is designed to be fully compatible with Bitcoin Core. It performs complete transaction and block validation, and passes 100% of TheBlueMatt’s regression test suite. For much of the core protocol logic, Toshi makes use of the bitcoin-ruby library written and maintained by Julian Langschaedel.
6. Kong
Kong is for anyone who wants to sell online and it is free to use to make this a possibility for everyone. No monthly fees and no additional transaction fees, ever. There are no restrictions on Kong. Have as many products you like, use as much bandwidth and storage as you need and make use of our incredibly flexible, customisable default theme; all for free.
7. Notie.js
Notie.js is a nicer JavaScript alert, notification, and dialog box. Instead of using the alert() function which shows a dull and slightly shocking alert box, you can replace it with the notie() function from the library to show a style-able alert.
8. SuitCSS
SUIT CSS is a reliable and testable styling methodology forcomponent-based UI development. A collection of CSS packages and build tools are available as modules. SUIT CSS plays well with React, Ember, Angular, and other component-based approaches to UI development.
9. BackstopJS
BackstopJS is a config-driven automated screenshot test application for responsive websites and web-applications. Specify a set of DOM elements and viewport sizes and BackstopJS will work like an extra set of eyes on your workflow. BackstopJS helps to catch the errors you might otherwise miss. Get a heads-up report for each selector. Quickly zero-in on issues with side-by-side screenshots and diff images.
10. Github Corner
It is only recently I realized that the Github corner, which we usually see on the homepage of an open-source project, is already 7 years old. Time for a facelift.Github Corner is an initiative for a more modern and fresh look for the Github ribbon.
11. ChocolateChip-UI
ChocolateChip-UI lets you create standards-based mobile apps with a native look and feel. It’s lightweight, fast, customizable, and works with Windows Phone, iOS, and Android.
12. Volt
Volt is a reactive web framework where your Ruby code runs both on the server and the client (via opal). The DOM automatically updates as the user interacts with the page, intelligently updating only the nodes that need to be changed. Data can easily be stored on the page, in a cookie, or in a database.
13. Senna.js
Senna.js is a single-page application engine that’s fast, lightweight. and has no dependencies. It provides several low-level APIs for building modern web-based apps, including history navigation, transitions, cacheable screens, and more.
14. Mail-in-a-Box
Mail-in-a-Box is an easy-to-deploy mail server that lets you take back control of your email. Technically, Mail-in-a-Box turns a fresh cloud computer into a working mail server. But you don’t need to be a technology expert to set it up. Without any particular technology skills, you can turn a fresh cloud computer into a working mail server.
15. Gooey
Gooey makes it easy to turn Python command line programs into full-fledged apps with graphical user interfaces. The best part is it only requires a single line of code.
16. KaTeX
Typesetting for math, especially advanced math, on the web can be a huge pain.KaTeX is a math typesetting library that makes it way easier and has a simple API with no dependencies.
17. Lineman.js
Lineman.js puts a wrapper around a number of client-side productivity tools, including Express, Grunt, and Testem, to allow developers to focus more on development and less on workflow.
18. AutocompleteField
AutocompleteField adds word completion to your UITextFields. It’s easy to use with plenty of customizable features, including field padding and completion color.
19. Booking.js
Booking.js is an easy-to-use embedabble calendar booking widget. It’s easy to customize, works with Google Calendar, and it can be integrated seamlessly into your branding.
20. Cerberus
Cerberus is a set of simple, solid patterns for responsive HTML emails. They even work in Gmail and Outlook.
