The Core

Do AI, Automation and the No-Code Movement Threaten Our Jobs?   Monday 01 April

The rise of the no-code movement has made tools accessible to a mass market with which end products can be produced which would normally require the involvement of a specialized professional. Is AI the last ingredient in phasing out the specialist?  

Programmer Puzzles

Programmer Puzzle - Hermit Boxes   Thursday 28 March

Can you program a solution to this puzzle  in which you place 3D boxes on a 2D grid to prevent your opponent being able to make a legal move? Let's hear what the team at International Storm Door & Software think of the problem.  

News

WASI - WebAssembly Everywhere!  
Wednesday 03 April

What has got into the WebAssembly people? From being a faster way to run code in a browser, it now seems that it about to take over the world - just like JavaScript. 

Visual Studio 2019 Now Available  
Tuesday 02 April

Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2019 for Mac are both now generally available. Both versions aim to get developers into their code faster (mainly via a new start window), while the Mac version has a new C# editor.  

LinkedIn Claims Flutter is Fastest Growing Skill For Software Engineers   Tuesday 02 April

Less than two years after the Flutter SQK was released by Google, it tops the list of LinkedIn's Fastest Growing Skills Among Software Engineers. 

Swift Runtime Now Stable  
Tuesday 02 April

Apple is to include the Swift runtime in current and future versions of all its operating systems - macOS, iOS, tvOS and watchOS. The move has been made because Swift 5 has a more stable ABI. 

Babel Adds Smart Pipelines  
Monday 01 April

Babel has been updated with support for smart pipelines and private instant accessors. The JavaScript compiler takes JavaScript ECMAScript 2015+ code and converts it into a backwards compatible version to run in older browsers. 

Go Survey Shows Show Continuing Preference For Go   Monday 01 April

The result of the 2018 Go User Survey show that half of respondents now use Go as part of their daily routine, with web development remaining the most common domain. Go users are increasing in expertise with the language and express strong preference for it. 

Not 42 But 33 - The Sum Of Three Cubes  
Sunday 31 March

Number theory is the purest of mathematics, although often said to have no uses. Of course, if you are a computer scientist you know better. The news is that we now know that a 64-year search for three integers that cubed add up to 33 has been solved. That just leaves 42. 

Picking, Packing, Delivery - All By Robots  
Saturday 30 March

Robots are beginning to have a real impact in logistics, relieving humans of arduous or repetitive tasks. Here are some of the very latest developments that take picking and packing further along the road, together will a robot delivery success story. 

Java 12 Released With Switch Expressions  
Friday 29 March

Java 12, the latest six-monthly release of Java, has been released with support for Switch Expressions and the inclusion of the Shenandoah low-pause garbage collector. 

Tesla Model 3 Pwn2Own'd   Friday 29 March

Team Fluoroacetate was the only one to attempt to hack the Tesla Model 3 at the recent Pwn2Own contest held in conjunction with the annual CanSecWest security contest earlier this month. Their hack was successful enabling them to drive the prize away. 

Kotlin Enters RedMonk's Top 20  
Thursday 28 March

RedMonk has published the latest of its twice-yearly language rankings. For the January 2019, or Q1 2019, the Top 10 remains virtually unchanged from Q3 2017 and shows only minor variation from Q3 2015.  Does this reflect a lack of progress or is it welcome stability. 

IFTTT GMail Options Removed  
Thursday 28 March

Most of the integration of Gmail features in IFTTT are being removed on March 31. IFTTT apps will still be able to send an email, but will no longer be able to trigger actions based on emails received.