News

Which Languages Are Bug Prone   Wednesday 27 December

A study of the effect of programming languages on software quality was reported in October's Communications of the ACM. In this most-read news item of 2017 we report some of its major findings relating to the prevalence of bugs.

As We Are - A 14-Foot Selfie   Wednesday 27 December

How far we have come from "As We May Think" to "As We Are". The selfie has has transformed from a modern wonder to an irritation and occasionally a danger to life and limb. But the selfie can be art. All it needs is a 14 foot display.

Charles Babbage Born This Day In 1791   Tuesday 26 December

Today we celebrate the birth of Charles Babbage, the man who invented calculating machines that, although they were never realised in his lifetime, are rightly seen as the forerunners of modern programmable computers.

Trees And Heaps For Xmas - A Programmer At Xmas   Monday 25 December

'Tis that time of year when it is OK to use the word 'tis. Programmers are a funny lot, but they too are forced to stand away from the keyboard and stop coding. Why exactly? Well there are festive treats to open and consume.

Where In The World Is Santa? Google and NORAD Keep Track   Sunday 24 December

Today, Christmas Eve, Santa and his elves set off on their annual epic journey with reindeer to deliver presents to children all over the globe in just 24 hours. If you want to know where Santa is, and how far away he is from location, NORAD and Google have apps and websites to track his progress.

DataGrip Adds Group Data Sources   Friday 22 December

There's a new version of DataGrip, JetBrain's IDE for databases and SQL.  The latest update has improved navigation and connectivity. DataGrip is a combination of an intelligent SQL editor and collection of database tools packed together and running on top of the IntelliJ platform.

Fear And Loathing In The App Store 18 - Apple Bans Templated Apps   Friday 22 December

This story isn't clear cut black and white, Apple is evil or Apple is good. What you think of the action depends on which side of the fence you are on, but it is a clear indication that once you accept a walled garden approach to software you give the control to a central entity, for good or bad.

Record Breaking Google Code-In 2017   Thursday 21 December

More high-school students than ever before are contributing some useful work for open source organizations that are part of Google Code-in, a seven week global contest designed to introduce teens to open source software development. 

Microsoft Closing Outlook REST API   Thursday 21 December

Microsoft has announced details of cessation of support for authentication in Outlook REST API, and decommissioning of the API in favor of Microsoft Graph. This will leave some apps unusable unless modified to use different authentication via Microsoft Graph.

The Core

Android Programming In Kotlin: Layouts and Autonaming Components   Wednesday 27 December

Programming Android using Kotlin has a lot of things to make life easy, but one of the best hidden features isn't even part of the language. The Kotlin plugin will add properties that give you direct access to the components in a layout. No more findViewById!

Babbage's Bag

Compilers, Interpreters, VMs and JIT   Thursday 21 December

The distinction between a compiler and an interpreter is one that can cause controversy. One programmer's compiler is another's interpreter and the whole subject gets very murky when you throw in the idea of the Virtual Machine and Just In Time compilation. So what is it all about?