Articles about Developer

OS X and Linux are nowhere near as popular as Windows when we look at the PC market as a whole, but the two platforms are actually extremely popular with a certain crowd. According to a StackOverflow survey, 26.2 percent of developers use Apple's Mac operating system, while distributions based on the open-source kernel are not that far behind, having a combined 21.7 percent usage share.

This may come as a bit of a shock, but, yes, OS X and Linux are nearly as popular as Windows among developers. In fact, according to StackOverflow, "If OS adoption rates hold steady, by next year's survey fewer than 50 percent of developers may be using Windows" -- and, obviously, OS X and Linux will come out even more popular in the process.

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The slogan "there is no cloud, it’s just someone else’s computer", accompanied by an image of a worried looking cloud, has been doing the rounds for some time now. It’s overly simplistic but it neatly sums up the mistrust that some computer users have about cloud technology.

The inference being that people who trust the cloud and believe the hype are in some way naïve. The extension of which is that, if you’re giving your data to someone else, how can you be sure it’s safe? This is why cloud security needs to be part of the software development lifecycle.

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As the battle between iOS and Android rages on, it can be said that both operating systems are wonderful. True, Apple's offering allows more timely updates, but Google's mobile OS is available to many manufacturers for various device types. It is clear why Android is the most-used mobile operating system in the world -- it allows affordable devices, while Apple simply doesn't.

Today, Google shocks the tech world by releasing the first official Developer Preview of Android N -- the successor to the wonderful Marshmallow. It is available for many Nexus devices, and you can install it now. Google even shares a handy how-to guide below.

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In theory, the scrum methodology is an excellent way to make the product development cycle more efficient. Scrum is better able to incorporate customer feedback by delivering the product in small iterations in close collaboration with the customer. Dividing one long marathon into a series of "sprints" creates a customer-centric, agile mentality that significantly improves upon an inflexible waterfall approach.

But in reality, scrum is just a piece of the puzzle, a good first step on a longer journey. Scrum only works as it’s intended when it’s functioning within a fully agile environment -- otherwise, any efficiency gained from scrum is lost when it inevitably encounters other departments using more traditional productivity methods. Agile can’t just be a process a company executes: it’s something a company must become.

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A walled-garden approach to apps for operating system is something we've become used to in the mobile world. Apple, in particular, has been incredibly successful in creating a closed-off eco-system that ensures it remains -- broadly speaking -- in control of what hits the App Store. With Windows 10, Microsoft is trying to blur the boundaries between mobile and non-mobile, and developers -- especially game developers -- are not happy.

Windows 10's Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is described by Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney as a "closed platform-within-a-platform". More than this, Sweeney says that it is the "most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made", warning that the company is trying to monopolize app distribution to the detriment of consumers and the entire PC industry. Writing for the Guardian, Sweeney bellows out a call to arms saying that UWP "can, should, must, and will die".

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If a few years back we were laughing off Microsoft's efforts in the mobile market, today we are looking at the software giant in a different light. That "mobile first, cloud first" mantra that Satya Nadella introduced us to when he became CEO now defines Microsoft, which has quickly evolved into one of the most important players in the mobile space afterwards.

Under Nadella, Microsoft has tackled mobile in a more meaningful way, refocusing its strategy so that it could become a major developer for more than Windows and Windows Phone. Today, the software giant's best services and products are also found on Android and iOS, the most important mobile platforms, and more have been added following high-profile acquisitions like Acompli and SwiftKey. Now, Microsoft adds Xamarin to its mobile portfolio, proving once again that it is dead serious about conquering mobile.

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Apple has made CloudKit much more appealing to developers by adding a server-side API to its framework. This will allow them to add much more functionality to apps that are powered by the service and to utilize it even when users have not interacted with iOS, Mac, or web apps.

Previously, CloudKit interaction was limited to the APIs that Apple provided in apps. It was useful for developers but did not give them the opportunity to implement more advanced features. Today’s modern apps make use of servers to perform tasks and collect information when a user is not using the app. With CloudKit’s new web API, developers can add these more advanced features into their apps using Apple’s tools instead of having to rely on third party services to do so.

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If you’ve watched original must-see box-set The Wire, you might recall Hamsterdam. For those who haven’t seen the series, Hamsterdam was an area of Baltimore which a senior police officer allocated as an unofficial decriminalized area for drug dealing and use.

Bemused beat officers, under instructions only to take action if violent crimes were being committed, were left watching activities that would ordinarily have put them on red alert. That is a bit what it’s like being a web host getting to grips with DevOps practice for the first time.

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Facebook is closing down Parse, its mobile development platform, just three years after acquiring it for $85 million. The shutdown comes as something of a surprise as it is not long since Facebook was talking about using Parse to make giant steps into the Internet of Things.

But it seems that Facebook's IoT future is going to be one that is Parse-free. The shutdown will take place over the course of the next year, but starts with immediate effect. As of right now Parse is in wind-down mode, and will be fully shuttered by January 28, 2017. Believed to power tens of thousands of mobile apps, the killing of Parse will see Facebook diverting funds to other ventures.

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One of the features that an app store must absolutely get right is search. Users have to be able to find what they are looking for and discover titles that meet their needs. At the same time, developers who spend time creating apps need to have their titles easily available to potential customers. If one, or both, of these requirements is not met, that creates a serious problem.

Windows Store is in this exact situation, according to multiple developer reports. Microsoft has been unable, or, worse, unwilling, to make the search functionality as useful as users and developers might like, at a time when Windows Store is already being penalized by its pitiful selection of top-tier and quality apps.

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All companies -- from retail, to media, to IoT -- are increasingly becoming software companies. Data loss, security threats, service downtime and performance issues can sink a business. As a result, DevOps has evolved from an island of marginalized system administrators to an organization-wide cultural shift.

Companies like Netflix, Ticketmaster and Etsy understand that DevOps entails established processes, interconnected systems for monitoring and diagnosing, and org-wide vigilance about incident response. As our businesses continue to become more software-driven, Heavybit’s community of developer-focused entrepreneurs, advisors and investors provide tips and tactics to scale your DevOps efforts:

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You are thinking about having an app built to help grow your business. After all, the biggest and the best all have apps, so should you, right? Ideally, you do need an app for your business.

In fact, a recent study published by the Gallup Poll reports that 52 percent of the population checks its smart phones several times per hour, and of the remaining 48 percent, 20 percent of the people claim to check their phones once per hour. These numbers are a marketing team’s dream! So many easy to reach people in one place! So yes, you need an app!

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Virtual reality is hardly new -- it has been around for many years. The sudden popularity, however, is due to lower prices and improved technology. Makeshift headsets like Google's Cardboard impressively leverage existing smartphones, but are limited by being nothing more than slabs strapped to the user's face.

Microsoft's HoloLens is far more advanced as it blends reality with fantasy, for augmented reality, or AR. Yes, it is certainly more expensive, but as wise people say, "you get what you pay for" -- AR arguably has more potential than VR. More importantly, not only is the Windows-maker's solution designed for consumers, but for business and scientific purposes too. For example, NASA is embracing HoloLens. With that said, hardware is only as good as its software, so today, Microsoft announces the opening of a developer-focused HoloLens experience at its NYC flagship store. Will this encourage development?

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The business communication tool Slack is trying to end the year on a high note, and looking at what the company announced yesterday, it seems to be on the right track.

The team-communication app, which now has two million daily users and 570,000 paying customers has announced three things -- an app store which will offer other productivity tools (like Trello, for example) to integrate with Slack, an $80 million fund to help developers create more apps for the store, and a new framework called Botkit which should simplify the process of creating apps.

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Organizations are struggling with the ability to deliver infrastructure to end users to enable the demands of a DevOps environment.

Those are the results of a new global survey conducted by Qualisystems, provider of private/hybrid cloud orchestration software for DevOps and cloud sandboxing.

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