News

Game Of Thrones Analysed   Wednesday 19 July

In a new paper, brilliantly timed to coincide with the start of the new series of Game of Thrones, we have an analysis of its main protagonists in terms of network theory 

Python Heads IEEE Spectrum Language Ranking   Wednesday 19 July

The language that comes top in this year's IEEE Spectrum Ranking is Python, closely followed by C and Java. However if you think another language should be the most popular one, simply use its interactive tool to change the weightings!

SQL Server 2017 RC For Windows And Linux   Tuesday 18 July

SQL Server 2017 is now at Release Candidate 1, and is available for download with support for Windows and Linux.

SDD Deep Dive 2017   Tuesday 18 July

An event offering seven concurrent workshops into today's leading technologies takes place in London in November. The number of places at each workshop is strictly limited so it is worth booking early. If you do so by Friday 28 July you can save £300.

LZ Compression And The One-Bit Catastrophe   Monday 17 July

We use compression algorithms extensively to save both storage and time. The most popular algorithms are based on LZ dictionary compression and are used in GIF, Deflate, Zip, PNG. It was even named an IEEE Milestone. But we know little about them. One long standing question is, can adding a single bit to a file dramatically change the compression achieved? Surely not!

Tabs v Spaces - More Analysis   Monday 17 July

The recent finding that developers who use spaces for indentation make more money that those who use tabs led to a few raised eyebrows and puzzled looks. Now reanalysis of the data finds further correlations.

Google Implements AI Landscape Photographer   Sunday 16 July

The latest artistic AI is Google's Creatism, a deep learning photographer which it claims is capable of creating professional quality work. Looks like photographers aren't immune from the robot/AI takeover.

Get Ready For SIGGRAPH 2017   Saturday 15 July

Yes, it's almost time for SIGGRAPH again and they seem to be getting better at advertising the conference. Well, it is a graphics conference and what is advertising but graphics, with the occasional word thrown in?

Visualizing Language Migration Over Time   Friday 14 July

It's not unusual for experienced programmers to switch from one language to another. This could be to handle the requirements of different projects or just to try out new options. Whatever the reason there's quite a lot of migration, both temporary and permanent.

Visual Studio Code Comes To Raspberry Pi And Chromebooks   Friday 14 July

A new community build of Visual Studio Code has made the lightweight source code editor available for Chrome OS and Linux running on Raspberry Pi boards and Chromebooks.

Top 10 From Around The Web: Even More JavaScript Resources   Thursday 13 July

This round up of resources from around the web will be of interest to JavaScript developers with different levels of expertise. 

Babylon.js 3 Adds Support For WebGL 2   Thursday 13 July

There's an updated version of Babylon.js, Microsoft's open source JavaScript framework for building 3D games. The new release adds support for WebGL 2.

Professional Programmer

Java Books For Beginners   Monday 17 July

Java is one of, if not the most, widespread programming language. Given its popularity, it's not surprising that our reviewers have scrutinized over 50 books relating to it, both new and classic. This is the pick of recommended titles.

The Core

Master JavaScript Regular Expressions   Thursday 13 July

Regular expressions can seem complex but the biggest reason for this is that most programmers don't take them seriously enough. Spend just a little time finding out how they work and you can do amazing things.