Weird and wonderful things I found in public Gists
Published: 2020-11-03 20:20:54

---
title: Weird and wonderful things I found in public Gists
published: true
description: Here are some of the weird and wonderful things I found looking at public Gists.
tags: 
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/m8fknchjzfs1c0clftu5.jpg
---
*Photo by [Vinicius "amnx" Amano](https://unsplash.com/@viniciusamano?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText)*

The other day I was creating some Gists for a project and stumbled upon the [discover](https://gist.github.com/discover) page which lists recently published public Gists.

I was always aware that you have the option of creating either a public or private Gist but didn't realise there was a place where you could just browse publicly created ones.

It's quite fascinating to see what gets published and also quite shocking what gets (probably accidentally) shared.

I came across small HTML pages, CSS animations, JavaScript challenges, games, logs, and even sensitive information like SSH keys and AWS credentials.

Here are some of the weird and wonderful things I found.

##[Dodecahedrons](https://gist.github.com/simondodson/908afd785a04ad24d91c3889143c7130)

[This Gist](https://gist.github.com/simondodson/908afd785a04ad24d91c3889143c7130) contains some JavaScript to create some interesting looking dodecahedron shapes that are animated and are illuminated based on the mouse position.

Here's a demo:

{% codepen https://codepen.io/soju22/pen/KKMWRwp %}

## [Background CSS Animation](https://gist.github.com/GradientAnimator/d361eaf63d0fda56fd4a95d485722a63)

I kept seeing a lot of [these background gradient animations](https://gist.github.com/GradientAnimator/d361eaf63d0fda56fd4a95d485722a63) Gists popping up.  

I converted one into a Codepen as a demo:

{% codepen https://codepen.io/codebubb/pen/zYBREOQ %}

It turns out the Gists are created from a Gradient creator found at https://www.gradient-animator.com/ which is pretty cool so check it out if you want to create some animated gradients.

## [Calculator Project](https://gist.github.com/aviwarner/3f87dec85a3d84bd3b9bfe634b1e3fa4)

Creating a Calculator with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is almost a rite of passage for developers and it's always nice to see examples of people's work.

{% codepen https://codepen.io/codebubb/pen/pobaWeG %}

It's not the most fully-functional JavaScript calculator out there but I would wager that whoever created it was jolly pleased with the results.

## [Is it snowing in Zugspitze?](https://gist.github.com/ioeides/ed0bee31059325dff83c489a10ac8081)

[This Gist](https://gist.github.com/ioeides/ed0bee31059325dff83c489a10ac8081) is a simple Python script that makes a call to the OpenWeatherMap API and let's you know whether it's snowing on the German mountain of Zugspitze ([the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugspitze)).

![Zugspitze](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/zi61l9z0cjdthn5zw2h5.JPG)

It turns out it snows *a lot* in Zugspitze.

You could of course adapt this to tell you the weather somewhere else.

## [Docker Cheat Sheet](https://gist.github.com/rexon07/1397a3e8105ba336dc1e9bdffa902104)

[This Gist](https://gist.github.com/rexon07/1397a3e8105ba336dc1e9bdffa902104) has a really useful Docker cheat sheet you might find useful


## [JavaScript Physics](https://gist.github.com/naveed-ahmad/e62b3fbfacd2a519890979a6afa8f74c)

Here's an example of how you could model some real-world physics like movement in JavaScript.  Plus it's quite cool to push all the obstacles over!

{% codepen https://codepen.io/naveed-ahmad/pen/JjKvrZj %}

## [Matrix Rain](https://gist.github.com/E-Bo/9fe8f7a7890221c15f09)

I came across [this Gist](https://gist.github.com/E-Bo/9fe8f7a7890221c15f09) when trying to search for animations.  It's quite old (as is the film) but it popped up because it had been recently updated I think.

Here's a demo:

{% codepen https://codepen.io/neilcarpenter/pen/oeGwD %}

## [Chocolate Cake Recipe](https://gist.github.com/swantzter/57ab785e7d7c2773b234b13b6040559a)

I haven't had a chance to try this one yet, but it sounds delicious.

If you get a chance to make this, let me know how it tastes 😀

## [Keyboard Events](https://gist.github.com/dwaard/6ee0c722af625db30f2e70ab3284f12d)

I quite like this [basic keyboard handler](https://gist.github.com/dwaard/6ee0c722af625db30f2e70ab3284f12d) written in TypeScript because it is formatted so beautifully.

There's a couple of things that I believe could make it better (TypeScript-wise) but let's just take a moment to appreciate the presentation of this bit of code.

## [Tiny Web GL](https://gist.github.com/CaterpyOwO/05eda3715e6aa9d751ac3c8069881993)

I found this bit of Web GL code in [this Gist](https://gist.github.com/CaterpyOwO/05eda3715e6aa9d751ac3c8069881993).

It took a bit of playing around with the dependencies to get it working but I managed to a version of the code to demo in Codepen:

{% codepen https://codepen.io/codebubb/pen/abZqLdb %}

I've always meant to get round to doing some 3D / WebGL stuff and this gave me a bit of inspiration on how to get started.

## [Flickgame](https://gist.github.com/pratz05/b46817105c89e99b354f116b06b5b3b8)

This was definitely one of the crazier things I found when looking at lots of public Gists.

Upon opening the Gist, I found some JSON which appeared to relate to a game played at Flickgame.org.

Again, after some research and experimentation, I managed to play the game from the Gist here: 

https://www.flickgame.org/play.html?p=b46817105c89e99b354f116b06b5b3b8

I still don't really understand it.

![Flickgame](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/h8lk42hz90s6ivw3oz2y.png)

## [Puzzles](https://gist.github.com/Untrusted-Game/a10e2d27c9b5e74781a90d43c66bdff9)

So this Gist is the JavaScript solution to a puzzle but it led me to discover a new site which actually looks like quite an intriguing way to learn some coding skills: http://alexnisnevich.github.io/untrusted/

## [Command Line Exercises](https://gist.github.com/singh011/40f6c56a52552d233517bc714b8ba517)

I came across this Gist which looks like someone has been given some exercises to complete on the command line which is good for practice.

I recreated the Gist without their answers [here](https://gist.github.com/codebubb/0c031f7dabcaf0de7bbdaf0fca8b43a2) if you want to have a go at them yourself.

## [Candy Cornfetti](https://gist.github.com/reanaagrawal/207913d68f144fd04bc7a98893852a48)

Want some dancing candy confetti (or cornfetti)?

Of course you do.

{% codepen https://codepen.io/danwilson/pen/jOrxNwx %}

## [Interview Challenge](https://gist.github.com/Prasanna-Poonacha/fc16effb0186220bd082cec609659fda)

Ever wonder what developers get asked to do as a coding challenge at interviews?

This Gist seems to suggest it was such a challenge that someone had to complete at interview.

## [MicroModal](https://gist.github.com/ghosh/4f94cf497d7090359a5c9f81caf60699)

This final Gist introduced me to the [MicroModal](https://micromodal.now.sh/) library which I had not come across before.

It's nothing earth-shattering but a useful library to know about nonetheless.

Here's a demo:

{% codepen https://codepen.io/codebubb/pen/yLJjxye %}

## Conclusion

There's definitely some weird and wonderful things that can be found in public Gists.

I found some impressive bits of code which gave me some things to think about and also some useful tools.

Just a gentle reminder not to save anything sensitive into a Gist which is public.