We have a real grab bag this week. Semantic Versioning http://semver.org/ A specification for creating semantic version numbers for software with an eye to helping make dependency management a bit easier. Sheetsee.js http://jlord.github.io/sheetsee.js/ A JavaScript library which lets you use a Google Spreadsheet as a data source for tables/charts/etc on your website. (Link courtesy of Eric) Online LATEX Collaboration https://www.sharelatex.com/ https://www.writelatex.com/ A two pack of links to online tools which let you collaborate on writing LATEX documents.

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Bit of a random selection today that will hopefully interest most. MessagePack http://msgpack.org/ It’s like JSON, but fast and small. Primus https://github.com/3rd-Eden/primus An abstraction layer for real-time communication libraries in Node.js Reactive Extensions http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/gg577609 Simply put, Reactive Extensions (Rx) = Observables + LINQ + Schedulers. (.NET) Orangevolt Ampere http://lgersman.github.io/jquery.orangevolt-ampere/ Single page web applications based on state machines. I would recommend taking a look at the slides first: http://lgersman.github.io/jquery.orangevolt-ampere/slides/

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Audio Sort http://skratchdot.github.io/audio-sort/index.html You studied them in school, you probably have used them in practice (usually via some library call), but have you heard them in action? I’m talking about sorting algorithms. Head over to Audio sort for some Friday fun as you listen to your favourite sorting algorithms arranging musical tones. You can even add your own algos.  Mergely http://www.mergely.com/ A purely JavaScript merge and comparison tool. Can be used directly from their site or more likely integrated into another app to provide comparison functionality.

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Grunt http://gruntjs.com/ A (quite popular) JavaScript task runner, similar to NAnt in concept, but with a more active ecosystem. Use it to watch your less files and compile them on change, or jshint your JavaScript files when you save them. Very plugin-based and easy to get up and running, particularly if you use Yeoman to bootstrap your projects. Dropbox Datastore https://www.dropbox.com/developers/datastore Everyone’s favourite cloud storage service is now offering developers access to datastores which live in people’s Dropboxes.

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Sproute http://sproute.io/ Similar to Meteor, this is a system which will allow you to build full feature applications in a very short amount of time. They are selling it for $99 at the moment to help pay for development, but if you read the tutorial on DailyJS, you can get it for free. Had a brief look, good for what it is intended but outside of that you’ll probably need to go straight to the underlying node.

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A bit of a random selection today: LevelDB https://code.google.com/p/leveldb/ A fast key-value storage library written at Google. Think SQLite without the SQL. Performance is the main selling point, but it has some neat features like transient snapshots, forward and backward iteration, and batch operations. IcoMoon http://icomoon.io Build your own custom icon fonts. Choose from hundreds of icons in various different sets to build up the icon font you want. We’ve used this tool to create the icon fonts for the public site.

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Moving away from JavaScript today, but not the web, I have a list of some alternative .NET projects for delivering web based content. Service Stack http://www.servicestack.net/ Thoughtfully architected, obscenely fast, thoroughly enjoyable web services for all. Tooling to augment or replace ASP.NET MVC or WCF for various web related tasks. Nancy http://nancyfx.org/ A lightweight framework for building HTTP based services, inspired by Sinatra (hence the name) Oak http://amirrajan.github.io/Oak/ Frictionless development for ASP.

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node-windows https://github.com/coreybutler/node-windows A module that lets you mange windows services, event logs, users and processes. Doesn’t require Visual Studio to build native bindings but rather bundles some binary tools to do some of the work. math.js http://mathjs.org/ An extensive math library for JavaScript and Node.js. Includes an expression parser for evaluating text based math formula. Shifticons https://www.shifticons.com/ Mix and match web font icons into a customized set. Web font icons are becoming more popular as resolution independence imagery is becoming more desirable.

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25 Useful JavaScript Tools for Designers/Developer http://graphicdesignjunction.com/2013/04/javascript-tools-for-designers-developers/ Consider this 25 links in 1. A list of nice looking JavaScript tools that people might find useful or interesting. I haven’t verified all of them as being “good” but at a glance, they all seem to scratch real itches. Callbacks are imperative, promises are functional: Node’s biggest missed opportunity http://blog.jcoglan.com/2013/03/30/callbacks-are-imperative-promises-are-functional-nodes-biggest-missed-opportunity/ Good comparison of promises vs. callbacks and how and why they are different.

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dotCloud https://www.dotcloud.com A platform as a service (PaaS) provider which provides free sandbox access to build apps. A great place to host prototypes and other apps in development that you want available on the wider internet. More unix focused, it does provide a nice range of service types. If you find yourself paying for a whole virtual server that you need to maintain for one or two apps, then this might be the answer.

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