Programmer Puzzles

Vertex Coverings And The Cool Kids Problem   Thursday 10 May

Joe Celko has posed another puzzle that requires you to think like a programmer. This one asks us to find the cool kids in a social network - the ones who taken together know everyone else. This is also a classic problem in graph theory and it is NP-complete, something the cool kids probably don't know. 

News

Python Development Trends   Wednesday 16 May

Results from a Python-specific study gives insights into the Python development ecosystem and an update on the Python 3 versus Python 2 situation. It also shows marked differences between those using Python for web development and for data science.

Rust 1.26 Adds Existential Types   Wednesday 16 May

There's a new version of Rust with support for existential types via impl-trait; better performance and support for 128-bit integers. The new release also has better match bindings and support for slice patterns.

Dojo 2 Rebuilt With New CLI   Tuesday 15 May

There's a new version of Dojo, the JavaScript framework, that has been rewritten and comes with with a new CLI, and utilities for connecting Dojo to popular standards and utilities.

Online Master Of Computer Science Degrees From Coursera   Tuesday 15 May

Both the University of Illinois and Arizona State University are now offering Master's degrees in Computer Science in partnership with Coursera. Is gaining an online masters a worthwhile undertaking?

.NET Core 3 Gets A GUI   Monday 14 May

Perhaps Microsoft is listening after all, but it could still listen a little harder. A low key, and almost unnoticed, announcement at Build 2018 reveals that .NET Core 3 will support a GUI - but only on Windows.

Alexa In-Skill Purchasing Goes Live   Monday 14 May

Amazon has announced the general availability of a way to make money from Alexa by expanding skills with premium features or content. Currently it is limited to the United States.

Xamarin Forms 3.0 Adds Visual State Manager   Monday 14 May

There's a new version of Xamarin Forms with a Visual State Manager, Flex Layout, Style Sheets, and Right-to-Left support.

Perfect Pictures In Almost Zero Light   Sunday 13 May

Take a camera and a neural network, suitably trained, and you can take photos in almost zero light that look as though the sun was shining.

Atlas Goes For A Jog And Spot Mini On Sale Soon   Saturday 12 May

Given how long we have been smiling, and perhaps even laughing, at the way that robots can't walk let alone run, it is a bit of shock to discover that they can, or at least Atlas can. Boston Dynamics also says that Atlas's best friend Spot Mini is also going to be on sale soon.

Udacity Kotlin BootCamp for Programmers   Friday 11 May

Undoubtedly there is a lot of hype surrounding the new kid on the block, Kotlin. Even so, it is currently welcoming ever increasing waves of Java migrants to the extent that starting out with Java for the Android platform is about to become outdated.

Linux On Chromebooks Now Official   Friday 11 May

Among other news from Google I/O 2018, Google is making it possible  to code on Chromebooks. Whether it’s building an app or writing a quick script, Chromebooks will be available for coding projects. 

GitHub Checks API For Continuous Integration   Friday 11 May

GitHub has announced a beta public release of a new Checks API that aims to make it possible to integrate code checks into a continuous integration workflow. It is the first feature built specifically for repositories with Travis CI GitHub Apps integration enabled. Checks API compatibility with CircleCI is on the way.

Azure Cosmos DB Gets Multi-Masters   Thursday 10 May

Microsoft has announced a number of improvements to Azure Cosmos DB, its Azure database announced last year. This year's Build conference heard details of a preview of multi-master support along with shared provisioning and a bulk executor library.

Android Things 1.0 Released - Too Secure To Be Successful?   Thursday 10 May

Whoever gets to control a large chunk of the IoT market will get a lot of power and presumably profit. Android Things 1.0 is Google's offering and it emphasizes security. But is it possible to have too much of a good thing?

Microsoft Offers More Revenue To Developers   Thursday 10 May

At Build 2018 Microsoft announced an incentive to encourage developers to create apps for Windows 10. A new fee structure will enable devs to keep 95 percent of revenue earned from certain apps. It excludes games, where the 70 percent share will still apply.

The Core

Android Programming In Kotlin: Events   Monday 14 May

One of the biggest simplifications Kotlin brings to Android programming is the way events are handled. It may be easier, but it still helps to know what is going on. This extract on  Events is taken from Android Programming In Kotlin: Starting with an App, a new book aimed at Android programmers wanting to use Kotlin.