InfoQ Homepage Programming Content on InfoQ
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Presentation: Erlang - software for a concurrent world
We get more and more cores in our CPUs, but does our software run linearly faster? In most cases - no. We've hit a trend change when it comes to faster CPUs. We'll get more and more cores, but each core will be slower as the number of cores increase. In his talk, Joe Armstrong introduces Erlang and the ideas of Concurrent Oriented Programming which is one way to solve the problem.
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On the Evolution of the .NET Collections
The collections in the .NET Framework have evolved significantly over the years. Taking advantage of Microsoft's new found openness, we show two versions of a familiar data structure, the hash table, in both .NET and Mono.
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Releases: JRuby 1.1.2; New Preview of Ruby 1.8.7
JRuby 1.1.2 was released in time for RailsConf - coming with radically faster startup and YAML parsing and many bug fixes. Also: the final Ruby 1.8.7 release approaches. Ruby 1.8.7 preview 4, planned to be the last preview, reinstates the previously removed Symbol#to_proc, and adds Binding#eval, __method__, among some changes in number and date parsing.
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StyleCop – Microsoft's Style Enforcement Tool for C#
Style enforcement has long been a hotly debated topic. Not only are their arguments over what style a team should standardize on, but also on whether or not there should be a standard style at all. In a move that is sure to add fuel to the flames, Microsoft has released StyleCop, the style enforcement tool they use internally.
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Call for Microsoft to Release Spec#
Last month Greg Young initiated a grass roots effort asking for Microsoft to release Spec#.
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C# Debate: When Should You Use var?
C# 3 added the keyword "var". This allows for local type inference when the compiler can unequivocally determine what type the variable should be. There is, however, some debate as to when it should be used.
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JavaOne: Cliff Click on a Scalable Non-Blocking Coding Style
Dr Cliff Click, a distinguished engineer at Azul Systems, gave a talk at this year's JavaOne about a scalable, non-blocking coding style in Java. The coding style has allowed him to build several lock-free data structures in Java that successfully scale on processors with hundreds of cores.
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Debate and more Insights on Dynamic vs. Static Languages
The transcript of Steve Yegge’s presentation on dynamic languages in Stanford University, which he posted on his blog, triggered many reactions in the blog sphere. Cedric Beust, Ted Neward, Ola Beni and Greg Young provided their viewpoints and arguments on different tradeoffs involved in dynamic vs. static debate.
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Should you really learn another language?
Blogger Gustavo Duarte cursed in church when he said that learning new programming languages is often a waste of time. He said that "In reality learning a new language is a gritty business in which most of the effort is spent on low-value tasks with poor return on time invested.". But not everyone agreed.
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Collection Initializers in VB
Collection initializers were supposed to be released along with LINQ in C# 3 and VB 9. While C# did get them, they were cut from the VB release. Part of the reason was the Visual Basic team wanted to make VB's version more powerful. We present the leading options for the new syntax.
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Interview: Smalltalk Dave about Programming Languages, SOA, MDA and the Web
In an interview at OOPSLA, Dave Thomas talks about the reasons for the rise of Java, what's behind Web 2.0, MDA and SOA, the rise of dynamic languages and the opportunities that he sees in the web as a platform.
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MountainWest RubyConf 2008 Videos
The videos from MountainWest RubyConf 2008 are all available for downloading from the Confreaks website. We selected a few videos and provide an overview and some entry points into the talks.
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Try to get the best of your Statically Typed Language
The use of dynamic type-checking in static languages is often perceived as unavoidable on complex projects, even though workarounds necessary to enforce it tend to negatively impact the quality of code. According to Debasish Ghosh, features in static languages, i.e. Java generics, offer an opportunity to avoid runtime type checking and optimize the advantages of static typing.
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Is it time to abandon loops?
With the addition of LINQ, extension methods, and improved anonymous delegates, many algorithms no longer need explicit loops. In a post titled "If you are using a loop, you're doing it wrong", Chuck Jazdzewski looks at a possible future for C#.
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Microsoft Research Releases Singularity RDK
On March 4th, the Singularity Research Development Kit (RDK) was released as an open source project on CodePlex. The RDK is based on the Singularity Project from Microsoft Research by Galen Hunt, Jim Larus and others. The Project web site said that Singularity itself is primarily about "the construction of dependable systems through innovation in the areas of systems, languages, and tools."