Best of JavaScript, HTML & CSS - Week of April 15, 2013

This week was filled with articles and tutorials around any number of libraries, tools and frameworks including jQuery, Grunt, Ember, Node and more. New releases include jQuery 2.0 which drops legacy IE support and hand.js, a polyfill for pointer events. Enjoy!

Tutorials

Raymond Camden shows how to build a Google Maps proof-of-concept application that has multiple updating markers.
Building a Google Maps Application with Updating Markers

Mary Lou demonstrates how to build a space-saving, responsive multi-level menu.
Responsive Multi-Level Menu

Dr. Axel Rauschmayer explains the differences between several means of checking for undefined in JavaScript.
Checking for undefined: === versus typeof versus falsiness

Chris Coyier discusses several techniques for using custom fonts without a performance hit.
Preventing the Performance Hit from Custom Fonts

TJ VanToll posts a comprehensive reference of CSS pseudo-elements to style form controls on various browser engines.
List of Pseudo-Elements to Style Form Controls

Anush creates a good reference on all the available CSS Selectors and how to use them.
CSS Selectors

Adam Hyland starts an interesting and informative deep dive into random number generation in JavaScript.
Random Number Generation in JavaScript

Chris Coyier uses ::before and ::after CSS pseudo elements to create line-on-sides Headers.
Line-On-Sides Headers

Libraries and Frameworks

Peter Keating shows how you can automate CSSCSS redundancy checks using his Grunt plugin.
Automating CSSCSS using Grunt

Remy Sharp discusses the evolution of his use of jQuery and when and where it is most useful or beneficial to rely on it.
I know jQuery. Now what?

Ryan Anklam walks through how to get started creating tasks in Grunt to automate your workflow.
Kick Ass Cross-Platform Workflow With Grunt

Christophe Coenraets shows how to build RESTFul services powered by Node.js, MongoDB and the Express framework.
Implementing RESTFul Services with Node.js and MongoDB

Alex Young starts a new tutorial series building a feed reader with AngularJS, YQL and Yeoman.
AngularJS: Let's Make a Feed Reader

Rey Bango continues his tutorial series on learning Ember.js by covering accessing and managing data within Ember.
Getting Into Ember.js: Part 3

Ariya Hidayat shows how to use PhantomJS to capture web pages as images and even how to limit the captured area.
Web Page Clipping with PhantomJS

Christophe Coenraets does a major overhaul of his very popular sample Backbone.js and Twitter Bootstrap application.
Sample Application with Backbone.js and Twitter Bootstrap: Updated and Improved

Dave explains a new SproutCore feature, classNameBindings, that adds/removes CSS classes based upon local properties.
classNameBindings: Dynamic CSS classes made easy

Mobile

Posted part 6 of my guide to creating your first mobile app with PhoneGap Build which covers using the storage API.
Create Your First Mobile App with PhoneGap Build – Using the Storage API

Tomomi Imura covers handling touch events versus mouse events versus the new pointer events proposal.
Touchy-Feely with DOM Events: Rethinking Cross-Device User Interaction

New and Updated Libraries and Frameworks

The new jQuery is smaller, lighter and faster but in exchange leaves behind support for IE 6, 7 and 8.
jQuery 2.0 Released

Packery uses the  uses a bin-packing algorithm to allow you to create complex layouts.
Packery

Hand.js is a polyfill for supporting Pointer Events for handling mouse, pen and touch input.
Hand.js: a polyfill for supporting pointer events on every browser

tus aims to create an open protocol, as well as client and server implementations for resumable file uploading.
Handling Uploads Sucks

Sly is a JavaScript library for one-directional scrolling for scrollbar replacement, parallax scrolling and more.
Sly

Etc.

Andrew Trice shows how to add gesture support in Edge Animate compositions using hammer.js.
Enabling Gestures in Edge Animate Compositions

Raymond Camden shares a proof of concept Brackets extension that relies on the built-in Node support.
Proof of Concept - Connecting a Node app with Brackets

Christian Cantrell shares a video to introduce CSS FilterLab for creating custom CSS Filters.
CSS FilterLab: A Visual Playground for Custom Filters