Windows & .NET Watch: Will you too be SLOOB?
By Larry O'Brien
Silverlight 3 introduces a new capability: Silverlight Out Of Browser (SLOOB), a way of installing Silverlight apps so that they can work without a browser. It's a neat bit of functionality, but will it catch on with most users?
5/1/2009 8:30:00 AM
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Integration Watch: Continuous testing cometh
By Andrew Binstock
One of the promises of continuous testing is that it can speed up software development by providing constant feedback that shortens the amount of time between changes. Developers should consider implementing this strategy.
4/15/2009 8:00:00 AM
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Windows & .NET Watch: Haskell: It’s like Klingon, but with math!
By Larry O'Brien
Haskell may be esoteric at first, but its ability to handle side effects in programming make it a great language to learn for aspiring programmers.
4/15/2009 8:00:00 AM
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Windows & .NET Watch: Recognizing DSL opportunities
By Larry O'Brien
Sometimes developers need domain-specific languages to accomplish certain tasks. When constructing these parsers, stick to what is most pertinent to your job.
4/1/2009 8:30:00 AM
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Integration Watch: Qt: suddenly resurgent
By Andrew Binstock
Qt has overcome some perceived hurdles to become a very useful tool for developing GUIs. Thanks to the LGPL license, which it now works under, it is available freely to developers.
4/1/2009 8:30:00 AM
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Integration Watch: Fusing a coherent Oracle
By Andrew Binstock
The Oracle purchase of BEA gave Oracle the tools it needed to create a very strong stack; even IBM cannot compete with it except in a few categories. Can Oracle use this to take market share away from IBM?
3/15/2009 8:30:00 AM
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Integration Watch: The zealots of agile
By Andrew Binstock
Agile proponents have taken a messianic view of their programming method, but it is by no means exceptionally better than the traditional method. Fans of agile should recognize criticisms of it.
3/1/2009 8:00:00 AM
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Integration Watch: When 100% code coverage is not enough
By Andrew Binstock
Simply providing 100% code coverage when testing is not sufficient, and in some cases can be downright wasteful. Instead, consider testing more than 100% in certain areas of your codebase for better results.
2/15/2009 8:30:00 AM
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Windows & .NET Watch: Wishing on a star for resources
By Larry O'Brien
As an astronomy enthusiast, Larry O'Brien has to work with telescopes enhanced with specialized hardware and software. Unfortunately, resources to help beginners look out at the stars are usually not geared properly to them, and this is an area that all educational resources should fix.
2/15/2009 8:30:00 AM
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Windows & .NET Watch: Python: Arbitrarily Interesting
By Larry O'Brien
IronPython 2.0 presents programmers a way to come up with "interesting things," but it can be daunting to those unfamiliar with the language. Fortunately, there are a few resources that can help programmers delve into IronPython's capabilities.
2/3/2009 10:40:00 AM
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Integration Watch: Will actors be part of your repertoire?
By Andrew Binstock
Fine-grained parallelism makes for the optimal use of processor resources, but it still has the same problems as coarse-grained parallelism. Actors are emerging as a way to deal with these issues as they provide purely local operations on data and deal primarily with constants.
2/3/2009 10:38:00 AM
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Zeichick's Take: Rebooting computer science, part 2
By Alan Zeichick
Computer science has an image problem. That’s one of the conclusions drawn at the Rebooting Computing Summit, which I attended a couple of weeks ago.
1/26/2009 12:00:00 PM
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Windows & .NET Watch: Software's just a system for stuff
By Larry O'Brien
When you think of software as a way of piling up "stuff," you can see what the differences are between good programming and bad programming. A good place to apply this analogy is in the choice between functional programming and object-oriented programming.
1/15/2009 11:25:00 AM
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Integration Watch: The end for Perl?
By Andrew Binstock
The latest Perl release is still years away, meaning that the language has languished. While newer languages like Python continually improve themselves, the archaic syntax and other problems of Perl could permanently damage its credibility.
1/15/2009 11:17:00 AM
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Short Takes: January 1, 2009
By SD Times News Team
In this issue, the editors take a look at Bjarne Stroustrup and his ideas about computer education, Douglas Engelbart and how what he did cannot be replicated, and the potential for Windows Azure to let Microsoft open itself up to developers.
1/2/2009 11:31:00 AM
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Windows & .NET Watch: Knocking off at 5 for a quiet weekend
By Larry O'Brien
Every IT worker and software development manager would love to enjoy their time off without worry of technically problems lassoing them back to work. What does it take to work those late hours when an automated DBMS fails?
1/2/2009 11:16:00 AM
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Integration Watch: Maven goes commercial
By Andrew Binstock
Sonatype, Jason van Zyl's company, has expanded its array of software and support products. The result is a more comprehensive set of tools for Java developers and lowers the usual risks involves with free and open-source software.
12/15/2008 8:30:00 AM
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Windows & .NET Watch: Add to cart? Maybe not
By Larry O'Brien
For those setting up e-commerce websites, cart software looks like it would be a good way for you to get started. But the programming aspects of cart are not that conducive to maintaining a commercial website, and developers should not use cart to avoid real software development.
12/15/2008 8:30:00 AM
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Windows & .NET Watch: Congratulations on a job well billed!
By Larry O'Brien
What are the hallmarks of a job well billed? Take a look at the memo of a company that values consuming its clients' time and resources over delivering a product on time… see any similarities with your own consultants?
12/8/2008 12:47:00 PM
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Integration Watch: A sudden bumper crop of IDEs
By Andrew Binstock
IDEs have continued to see growth, and several new releases are there for many different programming languages. Eclipse and open-source communities have primarily been the drivers of these projects.
12/8/2008 12:44:00 PM
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