Microsoft unveiled the .NET Framework in 2000, and in the decade that followed, it became an extremely popular choice for developing software for Windows. While .NET supports many programming languages, it is most strongly associated with the language designed specifically for the platform: C#. C# has grown considerably since its launch. Each new version enabled new program- ming techniques—C…
The C# programming language (pronounced ‘see sharp’) can be used for many kinds of applications, including web sites, desktop applications, games, phone apps, and command line utilities. C# has been center stage for Windows developers for about a decade now, so when Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would introduce a new1 style of application, optimized for touch-based interaction on table…
Clojure is a dynamic programming language for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), with a compelling combination of features: • Clojure is elegant. Clojure’s clean, careful design lets you write programs that get right to the essence of a problem, without a lot of clutter and ceremony. • Clojure is Lisp reloaded. Clojure has the power inherent in Lisp but is not constrained by the history of…
We will begin this chapter by briefly exploring the features that make Clojure compelling: • Elegant, expressive code • Lisp’s powerful notion that code is data • Easy, fast Java interoperability • A sequence library that unifies all kinds of data • Functional programming to encourage reusable, correct code • Concurrency without the pain of manual lock management This list of …
You’ve promised the boss that you’ll turn the new powerful multicore pro- cessor into a blazingly fast workhorse for your application. You’d love to exploit the power on hand and beat your competition with a faster, responsive application that provides great user experience. Those gleeful thoughts are interrupted by your colleague’s cry for help—he’s run into yet another syn- chroni…
Developing Drupal code has always been interesting and fun because the APIs change a lot between Drupal releases. Other CMS platforms have adopted a more static API approach, resulting in a much slower innovations. One such Drupal innovation has been the entity paradigm that simplified data manipulation. This enabled developers to build more powerful solutions and liberate their brains to remem…
Oh no! Not another programming language! Do I have to learn yet another one? Aren’t there enough already? I can understand your reaction. There are loads of programming languages, so why should you learn another? Here are five reasons why you should learn Erlang: • You want to write programs that run faster when you run them on a multicore computer. • You want to write fault-tolerant …
So what actually is F#? In a nutshell, F# is a multi-paradigm programming language built on .NET, meaning that it supports several different styles of programming natively. I’ll spare you the history of the language and instead just go over the big bullets: • F# supports imperative programming. In F# you can modify the contents of memory, read and write files, send data over the network, an…
So what actually is F#? In a nutshell, F# is a multiparadigm programming language built on .NET, meaning that it supports several different styles of programming natively. I’ll spare you the history of the language and instead just go over the big bullets: • F# supports functional programming, which is a style of programming that em- phasizes what a program should do, not explicitly how the…
Few entrepreneurs succeed in raising Angel or Venture Capital f i n a n c e . M a n y b u s i n e s s o w n e r s d o n ’ t b o t h e r t o a p p l y knowing that they won’t be successful. Others simply don’t need it and have an operation capable of generating the free cash flow they need to grow their business. Only a very few are able to meet the requirements of the Angel or Ventur…
Flex is a collection of technologies that enables you to rapidly build applications deployed to Flash Player, a run time environment for delivering sophisticated user interfaces and interactivity. Flex leverages existing, matured technologies and standards such as XML, web services, HTTP, Flash Player, and ActionScript. Even though Flex allows you to create complete rich Internet applications, …
The Java platform is arguably one of the most powerful and widely adopted ecosystems today. It has three significant pieces: • The Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which has become increasingly powerful and more performant over the years • The Java Development Kit (JDK), the rich set of third-party libraries and frameworks that help us effectively leverage the power of the platform • The se…
As a busy Java developer, you’re constantly looking for ways to be more productive, right? You’re probably willing to take all the help you can get from the platform and tools available to you. When I wax poetic about the “strength of Java,” I’m not talking about the language or its syntax. It’s the Java platform that has become more capable and more performant. To reap the benefit…