Open Source & Free Tools for Web Workers

Core Functionality and Design

• Computation over Storage: LessPass operates by computing passwords rather than generating and storing random ones in a file.

• Unique Password Generation: It generates unique passwords for websites or accounts based on a master password and information you know (such as the login and site name).

• Pure Functionality: The system relies on a pure function; given the same input parameters (login, master password, site, and options), it will always return the same, unique password.

• No Database or Synchronization Required: LessPass is designed to operate completely offline and without a database. It does not need to sync your devices, eliminating common synchronization problems associated with traditional password managers. There is no need to save your passwords in an encrypted file.

Security and Openness

• Open Source: LessPass is open source (GPLv3 license), meaning the source code is available and can be audited.

• Brute Force Protection: To increase the cost of breaking the master password by brute force, the tool uses PBKDF2 with 100,000 iterations and the sha-256 hash function.

• Open Culture: The developers refuse to install cookies or analysis tools (like Google Analytics) on their applications. They document their algorithms, aiming for "no magic, no black box".

Availability and Features

• Wide Accessibility: LessPass is accessible via any device with a browser.

• Multiple Interfaces: Beyond the official website, it is available as an Android application, a Chrome extension, a Firefox extension, and a command line interface.

• Complex Rules Handling: It supports complex, site-specific password rules (e.g., length, requiring only numbers) through a "connected" version. This version saves a password's profile (including options like length or required character types), but excludes the master password and the generated password.

• Password Rotation: Users can generate a new password without changing the master password by simply incrementing the "counter" field in the options.

• Self-Hosting Option: Users have the ability to host their own LessPass Database if they do not wish to use the official one, requiring docker and docker-compose installed on their machine.

"30 Seconds of CSS" is a curated collection of useful CSS snippets intended to be understood in 30 seconds or less.

Here are the principal characteristics and categories of the snippets included in this collection:

Core Purpose and Utility

• Curated Collection: It provides CSS solutions for common design and layout challenges.

• Accessibility and Speed: Snippets are designed to be easily understood. Each snippet includes the necessary HTML and CSS, a demo, and a detailed explanation of how the code works.

• Browser Support: Each entry lists the current browser support percentage, often noting if prefixes are required for full coverage.

Main Categories of Snippets

The collection is divided into several major categories covering key areas of web development:

1. Layout (Positioning and Structure)

This category addresses how elements are positioned on the page.

• Centering Techniques: Includes modern methods like Flexbox centering and Grid centering (horizontally and vertically), as well as older alternatives like Display table centering and Transform centering.

• Box Model Management: Features a Box-sizing reset which ensures that an element's defined width and height are not affected by its border or padding.

• Responsive Ratios: Provides a snippet for maintaining a Constant width to height ratio on elements with variable width.

• Space Distribution: Includes Evenly distributed children using justify-content: space-between.

• Accessibility Hiding (Offscreen): Offers a "bulletproof way" to hide an element visually and positionally while keeping it accessible to screen readers, useful for ADA development.

2. Visual (Aesthetics and Styling)

This category focuses on decorative and stylistic effects.

• Text Effects: Includes Gradient text (using proprietary -webkit- properties), Etched text, and techniques for Truncate text (single line with ellipsis) or Truncate text multiline (ending with a gradient fade).

• Customization: Features snippets for creating Custom scrollbars (on WebKit platforms), applying Custom text selection styles, and using a System font stack to mimic a native app feel.

• Shapes and Borders: Shows how to create simple CSS shapes like a Circle or a Triangle, and how to achieve a Hairline border using box-shadow and media queries based on device pixel ratio.

• Dynamic Graphics: Features a Dynamic shadow that uses inheritance and blur filters to create a shadow based on the element's own gradient color.

3. Animation and Interactivity

This section provides dynamic visual effects and user experience improvements.

• Loaders: Examples include a Bouncing loader (using translate3d() for performance) and a Donut spinner.

• Transitions: Snippets for Height transition (from 0 to auto, requiring JavaScript) and using Easing variables (cubic-bezier values) for powerful timing functions.

• Hover Effects: Examples include Hover underline animation, Hover Shadow Box Animation, and Sibling fade (fading out unhovered siblings).

• Form Interaction: Includes a CSS-only Toggle switch and Focus Within to style a parent element when one of its children is focused.

4. Other/Utility

This covers powerful CSS features and general utilities.

• Mathematical Functions: The Calc() function allows defining values using mathematical expressions, permitting the use of different units (e.g., pixel and percent) together.

• CSS Variables: Demonstrates defining and reusing Custom variables globally within the :root pseudo-class.

• Counters: Explains how to use Counters (variables maintained by CSS) to create automatically numbered, outlined lists.

• Style Reset: Provides the Reset all styles snippet using all: initial to reset all properties to their default values.

Flipside is a button that seamlessly transitions from action to confirmation created with few lines of CSS and jQuery.

NewsletterHunt focuses on aggregating and managing newsletter content.

Its principal functionality is to:

• Create RSS-like feeds for all of your favorite newsletters.

The goal of this feature is to ensure that users never miss out on the news and updates that matter to you.

The article, titled "Intégration et Authentification Firebase sur iOS" (Firebase Integration and Authentication on iOS), serves as a tutorial and comprehensive guide on integrating and configuring the Firebase back-end as a service (BaaS) platform within an iOS mobile application, with a specific focus on user authentication.

Here is a summary of the key content:

Firebase as a Solution for Rapid Prototyping

The article highlights that mobile applications require a back-end server for user login and data synchronization. Firebase makes it easy for developers to test out ideas quickly—an era characterized by rapid prototyping—by providing essential back-end functionality, such as authentication, database services, and object storage, thus eliminating the need for server-side coding knowledge or time. Furthermore, Firebase includes useful capabilities for prototype validation, including analytics, A/B testing, and push notifications. The service is free for small projects.

Step-by-Step iOS Integration

The core of the article outlines the technical steps required to set up an iOS project (named MyFirstFirebaseApp) with Firebase:

1. Project Setup: Creating a new Single View App Xcode project.

2. Dependency Management: Initializing and using CocoaPods to add the prerequisite libraries via the Firebase/Core pod.

3. Firebase Account Configuration: Creating an account in the Firebase Console (a Google product) and creating a new project. Although free for prototyping, the author notes the need to be aware of the pricing structure for production use.

4. App Registration: Registering the iOS app, downloading the essential GoogleService-Info.plist file (which contains basic configuration information like client ID, API Key, and database URL), and adding it to the Xcode project.

5. Initialization: Adding the initialization code (import Firebase and FirebaseApp.configure()) to the AppDelegate.swift file to ensure Firebase is correctly set up when the app launches.

User Authentication and Management

The article details the various user management and sign-in options available through the Firebase Dashboard's Authentication section, where developers can choose one or multiple methods:

• Standard Methods: Email/Password, Google, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, and Anonymous guest accounts.

• Phone Authentication: Allows sign-in using a mobile phone number, with Firebase SDK tools for verification. This method is free for the first 10,000 logins per month under the free Spark plan.

Implementing Phone Authentication

The tutorial dedicates significant attention to configuring and implementing Phone Authentication in Swift:

1. Configuration: Requires enabling Phone authentication in the Firebase Console and including the Firebase/Auth pod.

2. Push Notifications and reCAPTCHA: It necessitates enabling push notifications in the Xcode project. It also requires configuring reCAPTCHA verification (using the REVERSEDCLIENTID in the Xcode URL Schemes) as a fallback mechanism if silent push notifications cannot be received (e.g., when using an iOS simulator or if background refresh is disabled).

3. Cloud Messaging Setup: The tutorial includes instructions for configuring Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) by uploading APNs certificates and the APNs authentication key to the Firebase Console.

4. Code Implementation: The provided Swift code utilizes RegistrationService to call PhoneAuthProvider.provider().verifyPhoneNumber, which sends a One-Time Password (OTP) to the user's phone. Upon receiving a verificationID, the app prompts the user to input the OTP via an alert dialog. Finally, the signIn method creates a Firebase credential using the verificationId and the OTP, completing the user sign-in process.

This cheatsheet provides practical, open-source approaches (version 1.1.2, 2025-03-28) for making websites and web applications accessible to everyone.

Design for Accessibility Principles

1. Use Semantic HTML: Employ a logical headline order and structuring elements like <header>, <footer>, <ul>, and <p>. Semantic HTML helps screen readers understand the content structure and meaning.

2. Provide Text for Non-Text Content: All content not represented by text must be made visible to screen readers. This involves providing concise descriptions in alt attributes for content images and charts, and ensuring CAPTCHAs are also accessible.

3. Label Form Elements: Form input elements require linked <label>s for screen reader access (e.g., <label for="search">Search</label><input id="search">). The placeholder attribute is not an alternative.

4. Show Focus Visibility: When navigating by keyboard, the currently focused element must be visibly highlighted. Interactive elements should be focusable by default and focused in a useful order (e.g., use a <button> instead of a <span>).

5. Use Contrasting Colors: Ensure adequate color contrast.

6. Understandable Without Color: Colors should not be necessary to understand the content or its current state. For example, do not highlight errors solely with red text; add a subsidiary icon.

7. Write Descriptive Links: Links should be descriptive.

8. Caption Video and Audio: Provide text alternatives (captions) for both pre-recorded and live video and audio content. Voice recognition software can assist in creating captions.

9. Keep Pinch and Zoom Alive: Pinching to zoom is important for low vision and aging users. Use the <meta name="viewport" statement with user-scalable="yes". Avoid using user-scalable="no" and maximum-scale: 1.

10. Use WAI-ARIA Sparingly: WAI-ARIA should only be used if necessary, particularly for complex dynamic sites (such as single page applications). Semantic HTML should always be considered before using WAI-ARIA.

Methods for Testing Accessibility

1. Zoom to 400%: Use the browser or document viewer zoom to verify that all text remains visible.

2. Check Keyboard Navigation: Navigate solely using the standard keyboard keys: ← ↑ ↓ →, TAB, SHIFT+TAB, ESC, SPACE, and ENTER.

3. Use a Screen-Reader: Turn off the monitor and use a screen reader, such as Apple Voiceover or NVDA on Windows.

4. Run Lighthouse Audit: Execute the Lighthouse accessibility audit, which is located in the “Audits” section inside of the Chrome DevTools.

5. Deactivate CSS: Check if the document structure still makes sense when CSS is deactivated.

PDF.js is a project structured into distinct architectural layers designed to handle the interpretation, rendering, and display of PDF files.

Here are the principal functionalities and features of this tool:

1. PDF Interpretation and Rendering

PDF.js functions by separating core processing from user interaction through three distinct layers:

• Core Layer: This foundational layer is responsible for parsing and interpreting a binary PDF. It is the basis for all subsequent layers, although direct use of its API is considered advanced.

• Display Layer: This layer uses the Core layer to expose an easier-to-use API. Its main functions are to render PDFs and extract other information out of a document.

• Viewer Layer (User Interface): Built on the Display layer, the Viewer provides the UI for the PDF viewer utilized in Firefox and other browser extensions. This viewer component can serve as a good starting point for building your own viewer.

2. Customization and Development

The Viewer layer offers a ready-made UI, but creators are asked that if they plan to embed it in their own site, they should re-skin it or build upon it rather than using an unmodified version.

3. Accessibility and Distribution

PDF.js is designed for flexible distribution and deployment:

• Prebuilt and Source Versions: The tool is available in both Prebuilt (for modern and older browsers) and Source versions. The source code can be cloned using Git.

• CDN Inclusion: PDF.js is hosted on several free CDNs (including jsdelivr, cdnjs, and unpkg) for easy inclusion into web projects.

• Browser Support: Information about supported browsers is maintained on a dedicated wiki page.

• Testing and Examples: The source and prebuilt versions include a testing PDF file (compressed.tracemonkey-pldi-09.pdf) and various folders containing simple usage examples. The distribution also includes translation files in locale/ and l10n/.

Sublime Merge is a sophisticated, cross-platform Git client designed for speed and precision, aiming to handle Git operations "the Sublime Text way".

Here is a summary of its principal functionalities:

Performance and Speed

Sublime Merge sets the bar for performance due to a zippy cross-platform GUI toolkit and a custom high-performance Git reading library. The client is described as being "really, really fast", allowing users to stage Files, Hunks, and Lines with no waiting.

Staging and Committing

The tool offers precise and flexible staging. Key features include:

• Line-by-line Staging.

• Hunk staging.

• The ability to select one or more lines to split hunks into multiple changes.

• Commit Editing.

Reviewing and Diffs

Sublime Merge provides robust tools for code review:

• Side by Side Diffs.

• Character Diffs.

• Unmatched Syntax Highlighting powered by the Sublime Text engine. This helps users understand exactly what has changed in a commit. The tool supports over 40 languages out of the box.

• Users can interactively show more context lines by dragging the top or bottom of a hunk.

Search Capabilities

The client features a powerful search system that offers instant search over the whole repository. This includes find-as-you-type search. Searches can be executed by commit message, author, path, and contents.

Conflict Resolution and Git Integration

• A built-in merge tool allows for quick, painless resolution of merge conflicts.

• The platform is built around "Real Git", allowing users to view the exact Git commands they are using.

• It supports a seamless transition between the command line and Sublime Merge.

• Integration includes Git Flow Integration and Command Line Integration.

Additional Features

The tool also includes features such as:

• Command Palette

• Blame and File History

• Submodule Management

• An adaptable layout and powerful theming system.

Definition and Philosophy

Microjs.com is a "micro-site for micro-frameworks" and micro-libraries. This concept contrasts with the use of favorite monolithic frameworks, which are often bulky (50K, 100K, 150K, or more) and where the majority of the code is not truly utilized by the user.

Micro-frameworks are metaphorically described as the "pocketknives of the JavaScript library world", offering a quicker and smarter solution than a "ride-on John Deere tractor with air conditioning and six-speaker sound system".

Fundamental Characteristics of Micro-frameworks

Micro-frameworks possess very specific characteristics:

1. Compact Size: They are very portable because their size is generally 5k and under (minified and gzipped).

2. Single Functionality: A micro-framework does one thing and one thing only — and does it well.

3. Code Purity: They are "short, sweet, to the point". There is "no cruft, no featuritis, no feature creep, no excess anywhere".

Functionality of Microjs.com

The primary goal of the Microjs.com site is to help developers:

• Discovery: It helps to discover the most compact-but-powerful micro-frameworks.

• Selection: It makes it easy for the user to pick one that will work for them.

• Contribution: The site allows the community to add their own frameworks by forking the site on GitHub, adding the framework to data.js, and submitting a pull request.

Microjs.com is an initiative of Thomas Fuchs, dating from 2011 to 2019.

WebPerl is a project designed to run Perl in the browser.

Core Technology and Functionality

• WebAssembly Port: WebPerl utilizes the power of WebAssembly (Wasm) and Emscripten.

• Direct Binary Port: Critically, WebPerl does not translate Perl code to JavaScript. Instead, it is a port of the standard perl binary to WebAssembly, ensuring users have the full power of Perl at their disposal.

• Perl 6 Support: It offers experimental Perl 6 support.

• Browser Interaction: Perl code running via WebPerl can interact with JavaScript elements. For example, it can target elements by ID, add event listeners, and trigger JavaScript functions like window.alert.

• Output Handling: By default, standard output (such as the result of a print statement) goes to the JavaScript console.

Status and Availability

• Development Status: WebPerl is very much in beta. The developer notes that some features may not work yet, and parts of the API may still change. Feedback is appreciated.

• Open Source: The project's sources are available on GitHub (haukex/webperl).

• Related Tools: Beta web applications written using WebPerl are available, including the WebPerl Code Demo Editor and the WebPerl Regex Tester.

Usage and Deployment

• Prerequisites: To use the Quick Start method, users need a recent version of Perl (recommended v5.26 and up) and cpanm to install dependencies.

• Deployment: WebPerl can be deployed by downloading the prebuilt ZIP archive (e.g., webperlprebuiltv0.09-beta.zip), installing dependencies via cpanm, and running plackup webperl.psgi.

• Hosting: Content can be accessed locally via a browser at http://localhost:5000/ after running plackup. Alternatively, the contents of the ZIP archive can be hosted on a webserver of the user's choice.

• Examples: The ZIP archive contains several examples, including webperl_demo.html.

The Web Ahead is a podcast where the host, Jen Simmons, speaks with world experts on changing technologies and the future of the web. The show's mission is rooted in the desire to empower and challenge listeners as they build the web.

Core Focus and Content

The podcast delves into complex aspects of web development and design, covering 117 episodes and attracting 3.1 million downloads. Key content areas and featured topics include:

• Technology & Standards: CSS, HTML, Emerging Standards, Browsers, Performance & Dev Ops, and Tools.

• Design & Layout: Layouts, Responsive Web Design, Mobile, Typography, and Design.

• Strategy & Business: Content Strategy, Business, CMS, and Culture and Society.

Specific episodes highlight cutting-edge developments:

• CSS and Visual Transformation: Episode 117 discusses how CSS now allows web pages to transform default rectangles and squares into complex shapes like parallelograms, rhombuses, skewed boxes, circles, or any desired shape. This includes topics such as transforms, rotation, scaling, skewing, perspective, translation, clip-path, and shape-outside.

• Web Architecture: Episode 116 addresses the pressure to use JavaScript frameworks, focusing on the architectural style of the web and the appropriate role of each available technology.

• Future of Layout: Episodes 115 and 114 discuss the changing landscape of web page layout, suggesting that new CSS specifications are making previously impossible designs attainable and predicting this shift might be the biggest change to graphic design on the web in over 15 years.

Host and Production Quality

The show is hosted by Jen Simmons, an accomplished professional.

• Host Expertise: Jen Simmons is a full-stack designer since 1996, with expertise in HTML & CSS. Her professional background includes front-end development work for CERN, design work for Google and the W3C, and deep interest in content structure and innovating page layout.

• Interview Style: She is recognized as a master of the craft and a fantastic host. The conversations are described as insightful, incisive, and very human, offering a unique combination of details, context, values, and personality.

• Audience Experience: Listening is described as "going to the school of your dreams", offering practical, thoughtful, and diverse exchanges of ideas.

Recognition

The Web Ahead is highly acclaimed within the industry:

• It was the Winner of Podcast of The Year 2015 Net Awards.

• It is 100% recommended by guests and peers.

• It is praised for its in-depth conversations and for bringing the best in the field to share their knowledge.

The principal characteristics of the CSS rule display: contents are centered around controlling the element's box generation without affecting its content or underlying structure.

1. Core Functionality and Visual Effect

• Box Omission: When display: contents is applied, the surrounding rectangular box of the element is omitted entirely. This box normally consists of the border, padding, and margin areas.

• Content Display: The contents of the box (the content area) are drawn as normal.

• Conceptual Replacement: For the purposes of box generation and layout, the element is treated as if it had been replaced in the element tree by its contents. Visually, this is the same as imagining the element's opening and closing tags were omitted from the markup.

• Contrast with display: none: Unlike display: none, which prevents both the box and its contents from being drawn, display: contents only affects the box visually.

2. Interaction and Non-Visual Behavior

The rule primarily affects the visual representation; it does not affect the underlying markup within the document.

• Attributes and Targeting: The element still exists in the document and can still be selected, targeted, and interacted with using its attributes (e.g., ID). For instance, it can still be referenced using aria-labelledby.

• JavaScript Events: Event listeners set on the element (like a click event) will still trigger normally. Interaction is possible because the contents are visible.

• Pseudo-Elements: Pseudo-elements (::before and ::after) are considered part of the element’s children and are displayed as normal.

• Navigation Limitations: One notable issue is that users can no longer navigate to the element using a fragment identifier (hash link).

3. Special Behaviors for Certain Element Types

For elements whose appearance is determined by external resources or complex internal structures, display: contents behaves differently:

• Replaced Elements: For elements like images (<img>), which are controlled by external resources, applying display: contents functions exactly like display: none. The entire box and contents are not drawn.

• Complex Form Elements: For many form elements (such as <select>, <input>, and <textarea>), which are composed of several smaller elements rather than a single "box," display: contents also functions exactly like display: none.

• Buttons and Links: These elements do not have special behavior. The surrounding box is removed, but the content remains visible. Links still function for navigation, and buttons still attempt to submit a form if used within one.

4. Utility and Use Cases

• Semantic Layout Solution: This rule is useful for resolving conflicts between the need for semantic HTML structure (e.g., grouping content within an <article>) and the requirements of modern CSS layout systems, such as CSS Grid Layout.

• Enabling Direct Sibling Styling: CSS Grid often requires elements to be direct siblings to function correctly. By applying display: contents to wrapping elements (like <article>), the wrapper's children are treated as if they were direct siblings of the grid container, allowing complex layouts (like ensuring matched height sections across multiple cards) while preserving semantic grouping.

5. Browser Support

• At the time the source was written, display: contents was only supported in two major browsers.

• It should currently be treated as a progressive enhancement, and developers should use appropriate fallbacks (e.g., using @supports CSS queries).