New tools for web design and development: March 2013

This month there's something of a well ordered, structural theme to proceedings. We have formulae and functions that get down to nuts and bolts, MVCs of the first water, and yet more grids - along with a widget for controlling them. Everything should, by now, be in its right place.

The library of the week, the one that sticks in the mind, is Formula.js - The functions which make Excel and Google Docs tick, captured in JavaScript. It's significant because, when you think about it, who hasn't had an outcome determined by a spreadsheet? And now, the power which those cells deploy has been set loose upon the web.

This organising potential is echoed visually by Extra Strength Responsive Grids and jQuery Nested. Meanwhile, the MVC pattern behind Sails and Backbone is just another way of boxing up the concepts and functions on which the web relies. Making them easier to digest.

Balancing that little lot we have just one thing: collaboration. Draftin.com brings this bedrock of civilisation to the art of online writing. And it does so with enough aplomb to remind us that the production of new meaning is a human thing. One which rapidly escapes boxes and categories. A fact which, in turn, makes new boxes and categories necessary.

01. Sails

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The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq. 

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