Tech Guides - Programming

Operator overloading is a form of polymorphism. Some operators change behaviors on different types. The classic example is the operator plus (+). On numeric values, plus is a sum operation and on String is a concatenation. Operator overloading is a useful tool to provide your API with a natural surface. Let's say that we're writing a Time and Date library; it'll be natural to have the plus and minus operators defined on time units.  In this article, we'll understand how Operator Overloading works in Kotlin. This article has been extracted from the book, Functional Kotlin, by Mario Arias and Rivu Chakraborty.  Kotlin lets you define the behavior of operators on your own or existing types with functions, normal or extension, marked with the operator modifier: class Wolf(val name:String) { operator fun plus(wolf: Wolf) = Pack(mapOf(name to this, wolf.name to wolf)) } class Pack(val members:Map<String, Wolf>) fun main(args: Array<String>) { val talbot = Wolf("Talbot") val northPack: Pack = talbot + Wolf("Big Bertha") // talbot.plus(Wolf("...")) } The operator function plus returns a Pack value. To invoke it, you can use the infix operator way (Wolf + Wolf) or the normal way (Wolf.plus(Wolf)). Something to be aware of about operator overloading in Kotlin—the operators that you can override in Kotlin are limited; you can't create arbitrary operators. Binary operators Binary operators receive a parameter (there are exceptions to this rule—invoke and indexed access). The Pack.plus extension function receives a Wolf parameter and returns a new Pack. Note that MutableMap also has a plus (+) operator: operator fun Pack.plus(wolf: Wolf) = Pack(this.members.toMutableMap() + (wolf.name to wolf)) val biggerPack = northPack + Wolf("Bad Wolf") The following table will show you all the possible binary operators that can be overloaded: Operator Equivalent Notes x + y x.plus(y) x - y x.minus(y) x * y x.times(y) x / y x.div(y) x % y x.rem(y) From Kotlin 1.1, previously mod. x..y x.rangeTo(y) x in y y.contains(x) x !in y !y.contains(x) x += y x.plussAssign(y) Must return Unit. x -= y x.minusAssign(y) Must return Unit. x *= y x.timesAssign(y) Must return Unit. x /= y x.divAssign(y) Must return Unit. x %= y x.remAssign(y) From Kotlin 1.1, previously modAssign. Must return Unit. x == y x?.equals(y) ?: (y === null) Checks for null. x != y !(x?.equals(y) ?: (y === null)) Checks for null. x < y x.compareTo(y) < 0 Must return Int. x > y x.compareTo(y) > 0 Must return Int. x <= y x.compareTo(y) <= 0 Must return Int. x >= y x.compareTo(y) >= 0 Must return Int. Invoke When we introduce lambda functions, we show the definition of Function1: /** A function that takes 1 argument. */ public interface Function1<in P1, out R> : Function<R> { /** Invokes the function with the specified argument. */ public operator fun invoke(p1: P1): R } The invoke function is an operator, a curious one. The invoke operator can be called without name. The class Wolf has an invoke operator: enum class WolfActions { SLEEP, WALK, BITE } class Wolf(val name:String) { operator fun invoke(action: WolfActions) = when (action) { WolfActions.SLEEP -> "$name is sleeping" WolfActions.WALK -> "$name is walking" WolfActions.BITE -> "$name is biting" } } fun main(args: Array<String>) { val talbot = Wolf("Talbot") talbot(WolfActions.SLEEP) // talbot.invoke(WolfActions.SLEEP) } That's why we can call a lambda function directly with parenthesis; we are, indeed, calling the invoke operator. The following table will show you different declarations of invoke with a number of different arguments: Operator Equivalent Notes x() x.invoke() x(y) x.invoke(y) x(y1, y2) x.invoke(y1, y2) x(y1, y2..., yN) x.invoke(y1, y2..., yN) Indexed access The indexed access operator is the array read and write operations with square brackets ([]), that is used on languages with C-like syntax. In Kotlin, we use the get operators for reading and set for writing. With the Pack.get operator, we can use Pack as an array: operator fun Pack.get(name: String) = members[name]!! val badWolf = biggerPack["Bad Wolf"] Most of Kotlin data structures have a definition of the get operator, in this case, the Map<K, V> returns a V?. The following table will show you different declarations of get with a different number of arguments: Operator Equivalent Notes x[y] x.get(y) x[y1, y2] x.get(y1, y2) x[y1, y2..., yN] x.get(y1, y2..., yN) The set operator has similar syntax: enum class WolfRelationships { FRIEND, SIBLING, ENEMY, PARTNER } operator fun Wolf.set(relationship: WolfRelationships, wolf: Wolf) { println("${wolf.name} is my new $relationship") } talbot[WolfRelationships.ENEMY] = badWolf The operators get and set can have any arbitrary code, but it is a very well-known and old convention that indexed access is used for reading and writing. When you write these operators (and by the way, all the other operators too), use the principle of least surprise. Limiting the operators to their natural meaning on a specific domain, makes them easier to use and read in the long run. The following table will show you different declarations of set with a different number of arguments: Operator Equivalent Notes x[y] = z x.set(y, z) Return value is ignored x[y1, y2] = z x.set(y1, y2, z) Return value is ignored x[y1, y2..., yN] = z x.set(y1, y2..., yN, z) Return value is ignored Unary operators Unary operators don't have parameters and act directly in the dispatcher. We can add a not operator to the Wolf class: operator fun Wolf.not() = "$name is angry!!!" !talbot // talbot.not() The following table will show you all the possible unary operators that can be overloaded: Operator Equivalent Notes +x x.unaryPlus() -x x.unaryMinus() !x x.not() x++ x.inc() Postfix, it must be a call on a var, should return a compatible type with the dispatcher type, shouldn't mutate the dispatcher. x-- x.dec() Postfix, it must be a call on a var, should return a compatible type with the dispatcher type, shouldn't mutate the dispatcher. ++x x.inc() Prefix, it must be a call on a var, should return a compatible type with the dispatcher type, shouldn't mutate the dispatcher. --x x.dec() Prefix, it must be a call on a var, should return a compatible type with the dispatcher type, shouldn't mutate the dispatcher. Postfix (increment and decrement) returns the original value and then changes the variable with the operator returned value. Prefix returns the operator's returned value and then changes the variable with that value. Now you know how Operator Overloading works in Kotlin. If you found this article interesting and would like to read more, head on over to get the whole book, Functional Kotlin, by Mario Arias and Rivu Chakraborty. Extension functions in Kotlin: everything you need to know Building RESTful web services with Kotlin Building chat application with Kotlin using Node.js, the powerful Server-side JavaScript platform

Python needs no introduction. It’s one of the top rated and growing programming languages, mainly because of its simplicity and wide applicability to solve a range of problems. Developers like yourself, beginners and experts alike, are looking to skill themselves up with Python. So I thought I would put together a list of Python programming books that I think are the best for learning Python - whether you're a beginner or experienced Python developer. Books for beginning to learn Python Learning Python, by Fabrizio Romano What the book is about This book explores the essentials of programming, covering data structures while showing you how to manipulate them. It talks about control flows in a program and teaches you how to write clean and reusable code. It reveals different programming paradigms and shows you how to optimize performance as well as debug your code effectively. Close to 450 pages long, the content spans twelve well thought out chapters. You’ll find interesting content on Functions, Memory Management and GUI app development with PyQt. Why Learn from Fabrizio Fabrizio has been creating software for over a decade. He has a master's degree in computer science engineering from the University of Padova and is also a certified Scrum master. He has delivered talks at the last two editions of EuroPython and at Skillsmatter in London. The Approach Taken The book is very easy to follow, and takes an example driven approach. As you end the book, you will be able to build a website in Python. Whether you’re new to Python or programming on the whole, you’ll have no trouble at all in following the examples. Download Learning Python FOR FREE. Learning Python, by Mark Lutz What the book is about This is one of the top most books on Python. A true bestseller, the book is perfectly fit for both beginners to programming, as well as developers who already have experience working with another language. Over 1,500 pages long, and covering content over 41 chapters, the book is a true shelf-breaker! Although this might be a concern to some, the content is clear and easy to read, providing great examples wherever necessary. You’ll find in-depth content ranging from Python syntax, to Functions, Modules, OOP and more. Why Learn from Mark Mark is the author of several Python books and has been using Python since 1992. He is a world renowned Python trainer and has taught close to 260 virtual and on-site Python classes to roughly 4,000 students. The Approach Taken The book is a great read, complete with helpful illustrations, quizzes and exercises. It’s filled with examples and also covers some advanced language features that recently have become more common in modern Python. You can find the book here, on Amazon. Intermediate Python books Modern Python Cookbook, by Steven Lott What the book is about Modern Python Cookbook is a great book for those already well versed with Python programming. The book aims to help developers solve the most common problems that they’re faced with, during app development. Spanning 824 pages, the book is divided into 13 chapters that cover solutions to problems related to data structures, OOP, functional programming, as well as statistical programming. Why Learn from Steven Steven has over 4 decades of programming experience, over a decade of which has been with Python. He has written several books on Python and has created some tutorial videos as well. Steven’s writing style is one to envy, as he manages to grab the attention of the readers while also imparting vast knowledge through his books. He’s also a very enthusiastic speaker, especially when it comes to sharing his knowledge. The Approach Taken The book takes a recipe based approach; presenting some of the most common, as well as uncommon problems Python developers face, and following them up with a quick and helpful solution. The book describes not just the how and the what, but the why of things. It will leave you able to create applications with flexible logging, powerful configuration, command-line options, automated unit tests, and good documentation. Find Modern Python Cookbook on the Packt store. Python Crash Course, by Eric Matthes What the book is about This one is a quick paced introduction to Python and assumes that you have knowledge of some other programming language. This is actually somewhere in between Beginner and Intermediate, but I've placed it under Intermediate because of its fast-paced, no-fluff-just-stuff approach. It will be difficult to follow if you’re completely new to programming. The book is 560 pages long and is covered over 20 chapters. It covers topics ranging from the Python libraries like NumPy and matplotlib, to building 2D games and even working with data and visualisations. All in all, it’s a complete package! Why Learn from Eric Eric is a high school math and science teacher. He has over a decade’s worth of programming experience and is a teaching enthusiast, always willing to share his knowledge. He also teaches an ‘Introduction to Programming’ class every fall. The Approach Taken The book has a great selection of projects that caters to a wide range of audience who’re planning to use Python to solve their programming problems. It thoughtfully covers both Python 2 and 3. You can find the book here on Amazon. Fluent Python, by Luciano Ramalho What the book is about The book is an intermediate guide that assumes you have already dipped your feet into the snake pit. It takes you through Python’s core language features and libraries, showing you how to make your code shorter, faster, and more readable at the same time. The book flows over almost 800 pages, with 21 chapters. You’ll indulge yourself in topics on the likes of Functions as well as objects, metaprogramming, etc. Why Learn from Luciano Luciano Ramalho is a member of the Python Software Foundation and co-founder of Garoa Hacker Clube, the first hackerspace in Brazil. He has been working with Python since 1998. He has taught Python web development in the Brazilian media, banking and government sectors and also speaks at PyCon US, OSCON, PythonBrazil and FISL. The Approach Taken The book is mainly based on the language features that are either unique to Python or not found in many other popular languages. It covers the core language and some of its libraries. It has a very comprehensive approach and touches on nearly every point of the language that is pythonic, describing not just the how and the what, but the why. You can find the book here, on Amazon. Advanced Python books The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python, by Kenneth Reitz & Tanya Schlusser What the book is about This isn’t a book that teaches Python. Rather, it’s a book that shows experienced developers where, when and how to use Python to solve problems. The book contains a list of best practices and how to apply these practices in real-world python projects. It focuses on giving great advice about writing good python code. It is spread over 11 chapters and 338 pages. You’ll find interesting topics like choosing an IDE, how to manage code, etc. Why Learn from Kenneth and Tanya Kenneth Reitz is a member of the Python Software Foundation. Until recently, he was the product owner of Python at Heroku. He is a known speaker at several conferences. Tanya is an independent consultant who has over two decades of experience in half a dozen languages. She is an active member of the Chicago Python User’s Group, Chicago’s PyLadies, and has also delivered data science training to students and industry analysts. The Approach Taken The book is highly opinionated and talks about what the best tools and techniques are to build Python apps. It is a book about best practices and covers how to write and ship high quality code, and is very insightful. The book also covers python libraries/frameworks that are focused on capabilities such as data persistence, data manipulation, web, CLI, and performance. You can get the book here on Amazon. Secret Recipes of the Python Ninja, by Cody Jackson What the book is about Now this is a one-of-a-kind book. Again, this one is not going to teach you about Python Programming, rather it will show you tips and tricks that you might not have known you could do with Python. In close to 400 pages, the book unearth secrets related to the implementation of the standard library, by looking at how modules actually work. You’ll find interesting topics on the likes of the CPython interpreter, which is a treasure trove of secret hacks that not many programmers are aware of, the PyPy project, as well as explore the PEPs of the latest versions to discover some interesting hacks. Why Learn from Cody Cody Jackson is a military veteran and the founder of Socius Consulting, an IT and business management consulting company. He has been involved in the tech industry since 1994. He is a self-taught Python programmer and also the author of the book series Learning to Program Using Python. He’s always bubbling with ideas and ways about improving the way he codes and has brilliantly delivered content through this book. The Approach Taken Now this one is highly opinionated too - the idea is to learn the skills from a Python Ninja. The book takes a recipe based approach, putting a problem before you and then showing you how you can wield Python to solve it. Whether you’re new to Python or are an expert, you’re sure to find something interesting in the book. The recipes are easy to follow and waste no time on lengthy explanations. You can find the book here on Amazon and here on the Packt website. So there you have it. Those were my top 7 books on Python Programming. There are loads of books available on Amazon, and quite a few from Packt that you can check out, but the above are a list of those that are a must-have for anyone who’s developing in Python. Read Next What are data professionals planning to learn this year? Python, deep learning, yes. But also… Python web development: Django vs Flask in 2018 Why functional programming in Python matters: Interview with best selling author, Steven Lott What the Python Software Foundation & Jetbrains 2017 Python Developer Survey had to reveal

If you’re new to programming or have just a bit of experience, you’re probably thoroughly confused, wondering whether what you’ve been told all this while was bogus! If you’re an experience developer, you’re probably laughing (or scorning) at the title by now, wondering if I was high when I wrote the article. What I’m about to tell you is something that I’ve seen happen, and could be professionally beneficial to you. Although, I must warn you that it’s not what everyone is going to approve of, so read further but implement at your own risk. Okay, so I was saying, learn the framework, not the language. I’m going to explain why to take this approach, keeping two sets of audience in mind. The first, are total newbies, who’re probably working in some X field and now want to switch roles but have realised that with all the buzz of automation and the rise of tech, the new role demands a basic understanding of programming. The latter are developers who probably have varied levels of experience with programming, and now want to get into a new job, which requires them to have a particular skill. Later I will clearly list down the benefits of taking this approach. Let’s take audience #1 first. You’re a young Peter Parker just bitten by the programming bug You’re completely new to programming and haven’t the slightest clue about what it’s all about. You can spend close to a month trying to figure out a programming language like maybe Python or Java and then try to build something with it. Or you could jump straight into learning a framework and building something out of it. Now, in both cases we’re going to assume that you’re learning from a book, a video course or maybe a simple online tutorial. When you choose to learn the framework and build something, you’re going with the move fast and break things approach, which according to me, is the best way that anyone can learn something new. Once you have something built in front of you, you’re probably going to remember it much easier than when you’re just learning something theoretical first and then tried to apply it in practice at a later stage. How to do it? Start by understanding your goals first. Where do you want to go from where you are currently at. Now if your answer was that you wanted to get into Web Development, to build websites for a living, you have your first answer. What you need to do next is to understand what skills your “dream” company is actually looking for. You’ll understand that from the Job Description and a little help from someone technical. If the skill is web development, look for the accompanying tools/frameworks. Say for example, you found it was Node. Start learning Node! Pick up a book/video/tutorial that will help you build something as you learn. Spend at least a good week getting used to stuff. Have it reviewed by someone knowledgeable and watch carefully as the person works. You’ll be able to relate quite easily to what is going on, and will pick up some really useful tips and tricks quickly. Keep practicing another week, you’ll start getting good at it. Why will it work? Well, to be honest, several organisations work primarily with frameworks on a number of projects, mainly because frameworks simplify the building of large applications. Very rarely will you find the need to work with the vanilla language. By taking the Framework-first approach, you’re gaining the skill, i.e. web development, fast, rather than worry about using the medium or tool that will enable you to build it. You’re not spending too much time on learning the foundations, which you may never use in your development. Another example - Say you’ve been longing to learn how to build games, but don’t know how to program. Plus C++ is a treacherous language for a newbie to learn. Don’t worry at all! Just start learning how to work with Unreal Engine or any other game engine/framework. Use its in-built features, like Blueprints, which allows you to drag and drop things to build your game, and voila! You have your very own game! ;) You’re a Ninja wielding a katana in Star Wars Now you’re the experienced one, you probably have a couple of apps under your belt and are looking to learn a new skill, maybe because that’s what your dream company is looking for. Let’s say you’re a web developer, who now wants to move into mobile or enterprise application development. You’re familiar with JavaScript but don’t really want to take the time to learn a new language like C#. Don’t learn it, then. Just learn Xamarin or .NET Core! In this case, you’re already familiar with how programming works, but all that you don’t know is the syntax and working of the new language, C#. When you jump straight into .NET Core, you’ll be able to pick up the nitty gritties much faster than if you were to learn C# first and then start with .NET Core. No harm done if you were to take that path, but you’re just slowing down your learning by picking up the language first. Impossible is what? I know for a fact that by now, half of you are itching to tear me apart! I encourage you to vent your frustration in the comments section below! :) I honestly think it’s quite possible for someone to learn how to build an application without learning the programming language. You could learn how to drive an automatic car first and not know a damn thing about gears, but you’re still driving, right? You don’t always need to know the alphabet to be able to hold a conversation. At this point, I could cross the line by saying that this is true even in the the latest most cutting edge tech domain: machine learning. It might be possible even for buddying Data Scientists to start using Tensorflow straight away without learning Python, but I’ll hold my horses there. Benefits of learning a Framework directly There are 4 main benefits of this approach: You’re learning to become relevant quickly, which is very important, considering the level of competition that’s out there You’re meeting the industry requirements of knowing how to work with the framework to build large applications You’re unconsciously applying a fail-fast approach to your learning, by building an application from scratch Most importantly, you’re avoiding all the fluff - the aspects you may never use in languages or maybe the bad coding practices that you will avoid altogether As I conclude, it’s my responsibility to advise you that not learning a language entirely can be a huge drawback. For example, suppose your framework doesn’t address the problem you have at hand, you will have to work around the situation by working with the vanilla language. So when I say forget the language, I actually mean for the time being, when you’re trying to acquire the new skill fast. But to become a true expert, you must learn to master both the language and framework together. So go forth and learn something new today! Should software be more boring? The “Boring Software” manifesto thinks so These 2 software skills subscription services will save you time – and cash Minko Gechev: “Developers should learn all major front end frameworks to go to the next level”

Mob Programming is a programming paradigm that is an extension of Pair Programming. The difference is actually quite straightforward. If in Pair Programming engineers work in pairs, in Mob Programming the whole 'mob' of engineers works together. That mob might even include project managers and DevOps engineers. Like any good mob, it can get rowdy, but it can also get things done when you're all focused on the same thing. What is Mob programming? The most common definition given to this approach by Woody Zuill (the self-proclaimed father of Mob programming) is as following: “All the team members working on the same thing, at the same time, in the same space, and on the same computer.” Here are the key principles of Mob Programming: The team comes together in a meeting room with a set task due for the day. This group working together is called the mob. The entire code is developed on a single system. Only one member is allowed to operate the system. This means only the Driver can write the code or make any changes to the code. The other members are called “Navigator” and the expert among them for the problem at hand guides the Driver to write the code. Everyone keeps switching roles, meaning no one person will be at the system all the time. The session ends with all the aspects of the task getting successfully completed. The Mob Programming strategy The success of mob programming depends on the collaborative nature of the developers coming together to form the Mob. A group of 5-6 members make a good mob. For a productive session, each member needs to be familiar with software development concepts like testing, design patterns, software development life cycle, among others. A project manager can initiate the team to take the Mob programming approach in order to make the early stage of software development stress-free. Anyone stuck at a point in the problem will have Navigators who can bring in their expertise and keep the project development moving. The advantages of Mob Programming Mob programming might make you nervous about performing in a group. But the outcomes have shown that it tends to make work, stress free and almost error free since there are multiple opinions. The ground rules to define Mob remains at a state where a single person cannot be on the keyboard, writing code longer than the other. This reduces the grunt work and provides the opportunity to switch to a different role in the mob. This trait really challenges and intrigues  individuals to contribute to the project by using their creativity. Criticisms of Mob Programming Mob programming is about cutting the communication barrier in the team. However, in situations when the dynamics of some members is different, the session can turn out to be just some active members dictating the terms for the task at hand. Many developers out there are set in their own ways. When asked to work on a task/project at the same time, there might occur a conflict of interest. Some developers might not participate with their full capacity and this might lead the work being sub-standard. To do Mob Programming well, you need a good mob Mob programming is a modern approach to software development and comes with its own set of pros and cons. The productivity and fruitfulness of the approach lies in the credibility and dynamics of the members and not in the nature of the problem at hand. Hence the potential of this approach can be leveraged for solving difficult problems, given the best bunch of mobs to deal with it. More on programming paradigms: What is functional reactive programming? What is the difference between functional and object oriented programming?

The year is 2018 and it’s all over the television, the internet, the newspapers; people are talking about it in coffee shops, at office desks across from where we sit, and what not. There’s a scramble for people to learn how to program. It’s a confusing and scary situation for someone who has never written a line of code, to think about all these discussions that are doing the rounds. In this article, I’m going to give you 5 reasons why I think you should learn to code, even if you are not a programmer by profession. Okay, first thing’s first: What is Programming? Programming is the process of writing/creating a set of instructions that tell a computer how to perform a certain task. Just like you would tell someone to do something and you would tell them in a language like English, computers also understand particular languages. This is called a programming language. There are several like Java, Python, C# (pronounced Csharp), etc. Just like many would find English easier to learn that French or maybe Cantonese, every person finds each language different, although almost all languages can do pretty much the same thing. So now, let’s see what our top 5 reasons are to learn a programming language, and ultimately, how to program a computer. #1 Automate stuff: How many times do we find ourselves doing the same old monotonous work ourselves. For example, a salesperson who has a list of 100 odd leads, will normally mail each person manually. How cool would it be if you could automate that and let your computer send each person a mail separately addressing them appropriately? Or maybe, you’re a manager who has a load of data you can’t really make sense of. You can use a language like Python to sort it and visualise your findings. Yes, that’s possible with programming! There’s a lot of other stuff that can be automated too, like HR scanning resumes manually. You can program your computer to do it for you, while you spend that time doing something more productive! Now while there might be softwares readily available that could do this for you, they’re pretty much standard and non-customisable. With programming, you can build something that’s tailor-made to your exact requirement. #2 Start thinking more logically: When you learn to program, you start thinking about outcomes more logically. Programming languages are all about logic and problem-solving. You will soon learn how to break down problems into small parts and tackle them individually. You can apply this learning in your own personal and work life. #3 Earn great moolah Programming pays really well and even freelance jobs pay close to $100 an hour. You could have your day job, while taking advantage of your programming skills to build websites, games, create applications for clients, after work or over the weekend, while making some good bucks. Here’s a list of average salaries earned by programmers, based on the language they used: Source: TOP 10 ChallengeRocket.com ranking of projected earnings in 2017 #4 Another great idea! Well, in case you’re an entrepreneur or are planning to become one, learning a programming language is sure to benefit you a great deal. The most successful startups these days are AI and software based and even though you might not be the one doing the programming, you will be interacting with those who will. It makes things much easier when you’re discussing with such a person, and more importantly, it saves you from being taken for a ride in many ways. #5 Having fun Unlike several other things that are boring to learn and will get you frustrated in a matter of hours, programming isn’t like that. That’s not to say that programming doesn’t have a learning curve, but with the right sources, you can learn it quickly and effectively. There are few things that can compare to the satisfaction of creating something. You can use programming to build your own game or maybe prank somebody! I tried that once - every time a friend clicked on the browser icon on my PC, it would make a loud farting noise! Don’t believe me yet? Over 80% of respondents to our most recent Skill-Up survey said that they programmed for fun, outside of work. #bonusreason! What’s to lose? I mean, seriously what can you lose? You’re going to be learning something completely new and will be probably much better at solving problems at home or your workplace. If you’re thinking you won’t find time to learn, think again. I’m sure all of us can make time, at least an hour a day to do something productive, if we commit to it. And you can always consider this your “me time”. Okay, so now you have your 5+1 reasons to learn to program. You’ve had some quality time to think about it and you’re ready to start learning. But you have some questions like where to start? Do you need to take a course or a college degree? Will it cost much? How long will it take to learn programming? The list is never ending. I’m going to put up some FAQs that most people ask me before they intend to start learning how to code. So here it goes… FAQs Where to start? Honestly speaking, you can start in the confines of your home! You just need a computer, an internet connection and the will to learn, if you want to get started with programming. You can begin by understanding what programming is a bit more, selecting a programming language, and then diving right into coding with the help of some material like the book, Introduction to Programming. What language do I pick? Every language can pretty much do what others can, but there are certain languages that have been built to solve a particular problem. Like for example, JavaScript, HTML and CSS are mainly used for building websites. Python is quite simple to learn and can be used to do a variety of things, most notably working with data. On the other hand, C# can be used to develop some cool games, while also being a great language to build websites and other applications. Think about what you want to do and then choose a language accordingly. I would suggest you choose between Python and JavaScript to start off. Do you need to take a course or a college degree? Not really, unless you plan on making it your full time career or becoming a software engineer or something like that. I’ve known some of the top professionals who haven’t earned a degree and still are at the position where they are. Mark Zuckerberg for example, dropped out of Harvard to start Facebook (he recently received an honorary degree in 2017, though). Programming is about learning to solve problems and in most cases, you don’t need a degree to prove that you’re great at solving problems. You can take an online course or buy a book to start learning. Sometimes, just looking at code often can teach you a lot too. Take HTML and CSS for example. If you like how a website looks, you could just checkout its source code to understand why it is the way it. Do this for a few sites and you you grasp the basics of what the HTML/CSS code do and how to write or alter simple code snippets. Will it cost much? You can learn a lot freely if you have a lot of time and patience at hand; sorting out the good from the bad. There are plenty of resources out there from Q&A sites like stackoverflow to youtube with its vast collection of videos. If you are like most people with a day job, you are better off spending a little to learn. There are several reasonably priced videos and courses from Packt, that will help you get started with computer programming. Alternatively, you can purchase a book or two for under $100. Trust me, once you become good at programming, you’ll be earning way more than you invested! How long will it take to learn programming? I can’t really answer that for certain. I took about 4 months to learn Python, while a friend of mine could code small programs within a couple of weeks. It all depends on the language you choose to learn, the amount of time you invest and how committed you are to learning something new. What jobs can I get? You may be quite happy in your current job as a non-programmer who now knows to code. But in case, you’re wondering about job prospects in programming, here is the rundown. As a programmer, you have a variety of jobs to choose from, depending on your area of interest. You could be a web developer, or a game developer, or you could also be building desktop applications like a notepad or word processor. There are a huge number of jobs available for those who can work with a lot of data as well, while there are a growing number of jobs for professionals who can manage thousands of computers working together - their maintenance, security, etc. Okay, so you have enough information to start your adventures into learning programming! You might hear people talk a lot about professionals losing jobs due to automation. Don’t let something like that be the reason behind why you want to learn how to program. Computer Science and programming has become more ingrained in school education, and our little ones are being coached to be industry ready. Always remember, programming is not everyone’s cup of tea and you shouldn’t do it just because everyone else is. Do it if you’re really passionate about solving problems in a better way. You will never know if programming is really meant for you until you try it. So go forth and get your hands dirty with some code! What is the difference between functional and object oriented programming? The Top 7 Python programming books you need to read Top 5 programming languages for crunching Big Data effectively

Developer advocates are people with a strong technical background, whose job is to help developers be successful with a platform or technology. They act as a bridge between the engineering team and the developer community. A developer advocate does not only fill in the gap between developers and the platform but also looks after the development of developers in terms of traction and progress on their projects. Developer advocacy, is broadly referred to as "developer relations". Those who practice developer advocacy have fallen into in this profession in one way or another. As the processes and theories in the world of programming have evolved over several years, so has the idea of developer advocacy. This is the result of developer advocates who work in the wild using their own initiatives. This article is an excerpt from the book Developer, Advocate! by Geertjan Wielenga. This book serves as a rallying cry to inspire and motivate tech enthusiasts and burgeoning developer advocates to take their first steps within the tech community. The question then arises, how does one become a developer advocate? Here are some experiences shared by some well-known developer advocates on how they started the journey that landed them to this role. Is developer advocacy taught in universities? Bruno Borges, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft says, for most developer advocates or developer relations personnel, it was something that just happened. Developer advocacy is not a discipline that is taught in universities; there's no training specifically for this. Most often, somebody will come to realize that what they already do is developer relations. This is a discipline that is a conjunction of several other roles: software engineering, product management, and marketing. I started as a software engineer and then I became a product manager. As a product manager, I was engaged with marketing divisions and sales divisions directly on a weekly basis. Maybe in some companies, sales, marketing, and product management are pillars that are not needed. I think it might vary. But in my opinion, those pillars are essential for doing a proper developer relations job. Trying to aim for those pillars is a great foundation. Just as in computer science when we go to college for four years, sometimes we don't use some of that background, but it gives us a good foundation. From outsourcing companies that just built business software for companies, I then went to vendor companies. That's where I landed as a person helping users to take full advantage of the software that they needed to build their own solutions. That process is, ideally, what I see happening to others. The journey of a regular tech enthusiast to a developer advocate Ivar Grimstad, a developer advocate at Eclipse foundation, speaks about his journey from being a regular tech enthusiast attending conferences to being there speaking at conferences as an advocate for his company. Ivar Grimstad says, I have attended many different conferences in my professional life and I always really enjoyed going to them. After some years of regularly attending conferences, I came to the point of thinking, "That guy isn't saying anything that I couldn't say. Why am I not up there?" I just wanted to try speaking, so I started submitting abstracts. I already gave talks at meetups locally, but I began feeling comfortable enough to approach conferences. I continued submitting abstracts until I got accepted. As it turned out, while I was becoming interested in speaking, my company was struggling to raise its profile. Nobody, even in Sweden, knew what we did. So, my company was super happy for any publicity it could get. I could provide it with that by just going out and talking about tech. It didn't have to be related to anything we did; I just had to be there with the company name on the slides. That was good enough in the eyes of my company. After a while, about 50% of my time became dedicated to activities such as speaking at conferences and contributing to open source projects. Tables turned from being an engineer to becoming a developer advocate Mark Heckler, a Spring developer and advocate at Pivotal, narrates his experience about how tables turned for him from University to Pivotal Principal Technologist & Developer Advocate. He says, initially, I was doing full-time engineering work and then presenting on the side. I was occasionally taking a few days here and there to travel to present at events and conferences. I think many people realized that I had this public-facing level of activities that I was doing. I was out there enough that they felt I was either doing this full-time or maybe should be. A good friend of mine reached out and said, "I know you're doing this anyway, so how would you like to make this your official role?" That sounded pretty great, so I interviewed, and I was offered a full-time gig doing, essentially, what I was already doing in my spare time. A hobby turned out to be a profession Matt Raible, a developer advocate at Okta has worked as an independent consultant for 20 years. He did advocacy as a side hobby. He talks about his experience as a consultant and walks through the progress and development. I started a blog in 2002 and wrote about Java a lot. This was before Stack Overflow, so I used Struts and Java EE. I posted my questions, which you would now post on Stack Overflow, on that blog with stack traces, and people would find them and help. It was a collaborative community. I've always done the speaking at conferences on the side. I started working for Stormpath two years ago, as a contractor part-time, and I was working at Computer Associates at the same time. I was doing Java in the morning at Stormpath and I was doing JavaScript in the afternoon at Computer Associates. I really liked the people I was working with at Stormpath and they tried to hire me full-time. I told them to make me an offer that I couldn't refuse, and they said, "We don't know what that is!" I wanted to be able to blog and speak at conferences, so I spent a month coming up with my dream job. Stormpath wanted me to be its Java lead. The problem was that I like Java, but it's not my favorite thing. I tend to do more UI work. The opportunity went away for a month and then I said, "There's a way to make this work! Can I do Java and JavaScript?" Stormpath agreed that instead of being more of a technical leader and owning the Java SDK, I could be one of its advocates. There were a few other people on board in the advocacy team. Six months later, Stormpath got bought out by Okta. As an independent consultant, I was used to switching jobs every six months, but I didn't expect that to happen once I went full-time. That's how I ended up at Okta! Developer advocacy can be done by calculating the highs and lows of the tech world Scott Davis, a Principal Engineer at Thoughtworks, was also a classroom instructor, teaching software classes to business professionals before becoming a developer advocate. As per him, tech really is a world of strengths and weaknesses. Advocacy, I think, is where you honestly say, "If we balance out the pluses and the minuses, I'm going to send you down the path where there are more strengths than weaknesses. But I also want to make sure that you are aware of the sharp, pointy edges that might nick you along the way." I spent eight years in the classroom as a software instructor and that has really informed my entire career. It's one thing to sit down and kind of understand how something works when you're cowboy coding on your own. It's another thing altogether when you're standing up in front of an audience of tens, or hundreds, or thousands of people. Discover how developer advocates are putting developer interests at the heart of the software industry in companies including Microsoft and Google with Developer, Advocate! by Geertjan Wielenga. This book is a collection of in-depth conversations with leading developer advocates that reveal the world of developer relations today. 6 reasons why employers should pay for their developers’ training and learning resources “Developers need to say no” – Elliot Alderson on the FaceApp controversy in a BONUS podcast episode [Podcast] GitHub has blocked an Iranian software developer’s account How do AWS developers manage Web apps? Are you looking at transitioning from being a developer to manager? Here are some leadership roles to consider

Python is the fastest growing programming language on the planet. This year’s Stack Overflow survey produces clear evidence that it is growing at an impressive rate. And it’s not really that surprising - versatile, dynamic, and actually pretty easy to learn, it’s a language that is accessible and powerful enough to solve problems in a range of fields, from statistics to building APIs. But what does the future hold for Python? How will it evolve to meet the needs of its growing community of engineers and analysts? Read the insights from 3 Python experts on what the future might hold for the programming language, taken from Python Interviews, a book that features 20 conversations with leading figures from the Python community. In the future, Python will spawn other more specialized languages Steve Holden (@HoldenWeb), CTO of Global Stress Index and former chairman and director of The PSF: I'm not really sure where the language is going. You hear loose talk of Python 4. To my mind though, Python is now at the stage where it's complex enough. Python hasn't bloated in the same way that I think the Java environment has. At that maturity level, I think it's rather more likely that Python's ideas will spawn other, perhaps more specialized, languages aimed at particular areas of application. I see this as fundamentally healthy and I have no wish to make all programmers use Python for everything; language choices should be made on pragmatic grounds. I've never been much of a one for pushing for change. Enough smart people are thinking about that already. So mostly I lurk on Python-Dev and occasionally interject a view from the consumer side, when I think that things are becoming a little too esoteric. The needs of the Python community are going to influence where the language goes in future Carol Willing (@WillingCarol), former director of The Python Foundation, core developer of CPython, and Research Software Engineer at Project Jupyter. I think we're going to continue to see growth in the scientific programming part of Python. So things that support the performance of Python as a language and async stability are going to continue to evolve. Beyond that, I think that Python is a pretty powerful and solid language. Even if you stopped development today, Python is a darn good language. I think that the needs of the Python community are going to feed back into Python and influence where the language goes. It's great that we have more representation from different groups within the core development team. Smarter minds than mine could provide a better answer to your question. I'm sure that Guido has some things in mind for where he wants to see Python go. Mobile development has been an Achilles' heel for Python for a long time. I'm hoping that some of the BeeWare stuff is going to help with the cross-compilation. A better story in mobile is definitely needed. But you know, if there's a need then Python will get there. I think that the language is going to continue to move towards the stuff that's in Python 3. Some big code bases, like Instagram, have now transitioned from Python 2 to 3. While there is much Python 2.7 code still in production, great strides have been made by Instagram, as they shared in their PyCon 2017 keynote. There's more tooling around Python 3 and more testing tools, so it's less risky for companies to move some of their legacy code to Python 3, where it makes business sense to. It will vary by company, but at some point, business needs, such as security and maintainability, will start driving greater migration to Python 3. If you're starting a new project, then Python 3 is the best choice. New projects, especially when looking at microservices and AI, will further drive people to Python 3. Organizations that are building very large Python codebases are adopting type annotations to help new developers Barry Warsaw (@pumpichank), member of the Python Foundation team at LinkedIn, former project leader of GNU Mailman: In some ways it's hard to predict where Python is going. I've been involved in Python for 23 years, and there was no way I could have predicted in 1994 what the computing world was going to look like today. I look at phones, IoT (Internet of things) devices, and just the whole landscape of what computing looks like today, with the cloud and containers. It's just amazing to look around and see all of that stuff. So there's no real way to predict what Python is going to look like even five years from now, and certainly not ten or fifteen years from now. I do think Python's future is still very bright, but I think Python, and especially CPython, which is the implementation of Python in C, has challenges. Any language that's been around for that long is going to have some challenges. Python was invented to solve problems in the 90s and the computing world is different now and is going to become different still. I think the challenges for Python include things like performance and multi-core or multi-threading applications. There are definitely people who are working on that stuff and other implementations of Python may spring up like PyPy, Jython, or IronPython. Aside from the challenges that the various implementations have, one thing that Python has as a language, and I think this is its real strength, is that it scales along with the human scale. For example, you can have one person write up some scripts on their laptop to solve a particular problem that they have. Python's great for that. Python also scales to, let's say, a small open source project with maybe 10 or 15 people contributing. Python scales to hundreds of people working on a fairly large project, or thousands of people working on massive software projects. Another amazing strength of Python as a language is that new developers can come in and learn it easily and be productive very quickly. They can pull down a completely new Python source code for a project that they've never seen before and dive in and learn it very easily and quickly. There are some challenges as Python scales on the human scale, but I feel like those are being solved by things like the type annotations, for example. On very large Python projects, where you have a mix of junior and senior developers, it can be a lot of effort for junior developers to understand how to use an existing library or application, because they're coming from a more statically-typed language. So a lot of organizations that are building very large Python codebases are adopting type annotations, maybe not so much to help with the performance of the applications, but to help with the onboarding of new developers. I think that's going a long way in helping Python to continue to scale on a human scale. To me, the language's scaling capacity and the welcoming nature of the Python community are the two things that make Python still compelling even after 23 years, and will continue to make Python compelling in the future. I think if we address some of those technical limitations, which are completely doable, then we're really setting Python up for another 20 years of success and growth.

Nowadays, it seems like everyone wants to do things faster. We want to pay without taking out a credit card or cash. Social media lets us share images and videos from our lives in a split second. And we get frustrated if Netflix takes more than 3 seconds to start streaming our latest TV show series binge. However, if you want to learn how to code faster, I'm going to present an odd idea: go slower. This has been taken from Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career by Jordan Hudgens. This may seem like a counterintuitive concept. After all, don't coding bootcamps, even DevCamp where I teach, tell you how you can learn how to code in a few months? Well yes, and research shows that 8 weeks is a powerful number when it comes to learning. The Navy Seal training program specifically chose 8 weeks as its timeframe for conditioning candidates. And if you search the web for the phrase 8 Week Training programs, you'll find courses ranging from running 10ks to speaking Spanish fluently. So yes, I'm huge believer that individuals can learn an incredible amount of information in a short period of time. But what I'm talking about here is becoming more deliberate when it comes to learning new information. Learn how to code faster If you're like me, when you learn a new topic the first thing you'll do is either move onto the next topic or repeat the concept as quickly as humanly possible. For example, when I learn a new Ruby or Scala programming method I'll usually jump right into using it in as many different situations as possible. However, I've discovered that this may not be the best approach because it's very short-sighted. Your default mind is stopping you from coding faster When it comes to learning how to code faster, one of the most challenging requirements is moving knowledge from our short-term memory to our long-term memory. Remember the last time you learned a programming technique. Do you remember how easy it felt when you repeated what the instructor taught? The syntax seemed straightforward and it probably seemed like there was no way you would forget how to implement the feature. But after a few days, if you try to rebuild the component, is it easy or hard? If you're like me, the concept that seemed incredibly easy only a few days ago now causes you to draw a blank. But don't worry. This doesn't mean that we're incompetent. Instead, it means that this piece of knowledge wasn't given the chance to move from our short-term to our long-term memory. Hacking the mind So, if our default mindset is to forget what we've learned after a few days (or a few minutes), how can we learn anything? This is where our brain's default programming comes into play and where we can hack the way that we learn. I'm currently teaching myself the TypeScript programming language. TypeScript is the language that's recommended for Angular 2 development, so I thought it would be a good next language to learn. However, instead of taking my default approach, which is to slam through training guides and tutorials, I'm taking a more methodical approach. Slowing it down To learn TypeScript, I'm going through a number of different books and videos. And as I follow along with the guides, as soon as I learn a new topic I completely stop. I'll stand up. Write the new component on one of my whiteboards. And actually, write the program out by hand. After that, I type the program out on the keyboard… very slowly. So slowly that I know I could go around 4-5x faster. But by taking this approach I'm forcing my mind to think about the new concept instead of rushing through it. When it comes to working with our long-term memory, this approach is more effective than simply flying through a concept because it forces our minds to think through each keystroke. That means when it comes to actually writing code, it will come much more naturally to you. Bend it like Beethoven I didn't learn this technique from another developer. Instead, I heard about how one of the most successful classical music institutions in the world, the Meadowmount School of Music in New York, taught students new music compositions. As a game, the school gives out portions of the sheet music. So, where most schools will give each student the full song, Meadowmount splits the music up into pieces. From there, it hands each student a single piece for them to focus on. From that point, the student will only learn to place that single piece of music. They will start out very slowly. They won't rush through notes because they don't even know how they fit into the song. This approach teaches them how to concentrate on learning a new song one note at a time. From that point, the students trade note cards and then focus on learning another piece of the song. They continue with trading cards until each student has been able to work through the entire set of cards. By forcing the students to break a song into pieces they no longer will have any weak points in a song. Instead, the students will have focused on the notes themselves. From this point, it's trivial for all the students in the class to combine their knowledge and learn how to play the song all the way through. From classical music to coding So, can this approach help you learn how to code faster? I think so. The research shows that by slowing down and breaking concepts into small pieces, it's easier for students to transfer information from the short-term to long-term memory. So, the next time you are learning a coding concept, take a step back. Instead of simply copying what the instructor is teaching, write it down on a piece of paper. Walk through exactly what is happening in a program. If you take this approach, you will discover that you're no longer simply following a teacher's set of steps, but that you'll actually learn how the concepts work. And if you get to the stage of understanding, you will be ready to transfer that knowledge to your long-term memory and remember it for good.

Python is one of the most used programming languages on the planet. But when something is so established and popular across a number of technical domains the pace of change slows. Moving to Python 3 appears to be a challenge for many development teams and organizations. So, is switching to Python 3 worth the financial investment, the training and the stress? Mike Driscoll spoke to a number of Python experts about whether developers should move to Python 3 for Python Interviews, a book that features 20 interviews with leading Python programmers and community contributors. The transition to Python 3 can be done gradually Brett Cannon (@brettsky), Python core developer and Principal Software Developer at Microsoft: As someone who helped to make Python 3 come about, I'm not exactly an unbiased person to ask about this. I obviously think people should make the switch to Python 3 immediately, to gain the benefits of what has been added to the language since Python 3.0 first came out. I hope people realize that the transition to Python 3 can be done gradually, so the switch doesn't have to be abrupt or especially painful. Instagram switched in nine months, while continuing to develop new features, which shows that it can be done. Anyone starting out with Python should learn Python 3 Steve Holden (@HoldenWeb), CTO of Global Stress Index and former chairman and director of The PSF: Only when they need to. There will inevitably be systems written in 2.7 that won't get migrated. I hope that their operators will collectively form an industry-wide support group, to extend the lifetimes of those systems beyond the 2020 deadline for Python-Dev support. However, anyone starting out with Python should clearly learn Python 3 and that is increasingly the case. Python 3 resolves a lot of inconsistencies Glyph Lefkowitz (@glyph), founder of Twisted, a Python network programming framework, awarded The PSF’s Community Service Award in 2017: I'm in Python 3 in my day job now and I love it. After much blood, sweat and tears, I think it actually is a better programming language than Python 2 was. I think that it resolves a lot of inconsistencies. Most improvements should mirror quality of life issues and the really interesting stuff going on in Python is all in the ecosystem. I absolutely cannot wait for a PyPy 3.5, because one of the real downsides of using Python 3 at work is that I now have to deal with the fact that all of my code is 20 times slower. When I do stuff for the Twisted ecosystem, and I run stuff on Twisted's infrastructure, we use Python 2.7 as a language everywhere, but we use PyPy as the runtime. It is just unbelievably fast! If you're running services, then they can run with a tenth of the resources. A PyPy process will take 80 MB of memory, but once you're running that it will actually take more memory per interpreter, but less memory per object. So if you're doing any Python stuff at scale, I think PyPy is super interesting. One of my continued bits of confusion about the Python community is that there's this thing out there which, for Python 2 anyway, just makes all of your code 20 times faster. This wasn't really super popular, in fact PyPy download stats still show that it's not as popular as Python 3, and Python 3 is really experiencing a huge uptick in popularity. I do think that given that the uptake in popularity has happened, the lack of a viable Python 3 implementation for PyPy is starting to hurt it quite a bit. But it was around and very fast for a long time before Python 3 had even hit 10% of PyPy's downloads. So I keep wanting to predict that this is the year of PyPy on the desktop, but it just never seems to happen. Most actively maintained libraries support Python 3 Doug Hellmann (@doughellmann), the man behind Python Module of the Week and a fellow of The PSF: The long lifetime for Python 2.7 recognizes the reality that rewriting functional software based on backwards-incompatible upstream changes isn't a high priority for most companies. I encourage people to use the latest version of Python 3 that is available on their deployment platform for all new projects. I also advise them to carefully reconsider porting their remaining legacy applications now that most actively maintained libraries support Python 3. Migration from Python 2 to 3 is difficult Massimo Di Pierro (@mdipierro), Professor at the School of Computing at De Paul University in Chicago and creator of web2py, an open source web application framework written in Python: Python 3 is a better language than Python 2, but I think that migration from Python 2 to Python 3 is difficult. It cannot be completely automated and often it requires understanding the code. People do not want to touch things that currently work. For example, the str function in Python 2 converts to a string of bytes, but in Python 3, it converts to Unicode. So this makes it impossible to switch from Python 2 to Python 3, without actually going through the code and understanding what type of input is being passed to the function, and what kind of output is expected. A naïve conversion may work very well as long as you don't have any strange characters in your input (like byte sequences that do not map into Unicode). When that happens, you don't know if the code is doing what it was supposed to do originally or not. Consider banks, for example. They have huge codebases in Python, which have been developed and tested over many years. They are not going to switch easily because it is difficult to justify that cost. Consider this: some banks still use COBOL. There are tools to help with the transition from Python 2 to Python 3. I'm not really an expert on those tools, so a lot of the problems I see may have a solution that I'm not aware of. But I still found that each time I had to convert code, this process was not as straightforward as I would like. The divide between the worlds of Python 2 and 3 will exist well beyond 2020 Marc-Andre Lemburg (@malemburg), co-founder of The PSF and CEO of eGenix: Yes, you should, but you have to consider the amount of work which has to go into a port from Python 2.7 to 3.x. Many companies have huge code bases written for Python 2.x, including my own company eGenix. Commercially, it doesn't always make sense to port to Python 3.x, so the divide between the two worlds will continue to exist well beyond 2020. Python 2.7 does have its advantages because it became the LTS version of Python. Corporate users generally like these long-term support versions, since they reduce porting efforts from one version to the next. I believe that Python will have to come up with an LTS 3.x version as well, to be able to sustain success in the corporate world. Once we settle on such a version, this will also make a more viable case for a Python 2.7 port, since the investment will then be secured for a good number of years. Python 3 has tons of amazing new features Barry Warsaw (@pumpichank), member of the Python Foundation team at LinkedIn, former project leader of GNU Mailman: We all know that we've got to get on Python 3, so Python 2's life is limited. I made it a mission inside of Ubuntu to try to get people to get on Python 3. Similarly, within LinkedIn, I'm really psyched, because all of my projects are on Python 3 now. Python 3 is so much more compelling than Python 2. You don't even realize all of the features that you have in Python 3. One of the features that I think is really awesome is the async I/O library. I'm using that in a lot of things and think it is a very compelling new feature, that started with Python 3.4. Even with Python 3.5, with the new async keywords for I/O-based applications, asyncio was just amazing. There are tons of these features that once you start to use them, you just can't go back to Python 2. It feels so primitive. I love Python 3 and use it exclusively in all of my personal open source projects. I find that dropping back to Python 2.7 is often a chore, because so many of the cool things you depend on are just missing, although some libraries are available in Python 2 compatible back ports. I firmly believe that it's well past the time to fully embrace Python 3. I wouldn't write a line of new code that doesn't support it, although there can be business reasons to continue to support existing Python 2 code. It's almost never that difficult to convert to Python 3, although there are still a handful of dependencies that don't support it, often because those dependencies have been abandoned. It does require resources and careful planning though, but any organization that routinely addresses technical debt should have conversion to Python 3 in their plans. That said, the long life of Python 2.7 has been great. It's provided two important benefits I think. The first is that it provided a very stable version of Python, almost a long-term support release, so folks didn't have to even think about changes in Python every 18 months (the typical length of time new versions are in development). Python 2.7's long life also allowed the rest of the ecosystem to catch up with Python 3. So the folks who were very motivated to support it could sand down the sharp edges and make it much easier for others to follow. I think we now have very good tools, experience, and expertise in how to switch to Python 3 with the greatest chance of success. I think we reached the tipping point somewhere around the Python 3.5 release. Regardless of what the numbers say, we're well past the point where there's any debate about choosing Python 3, especially for new code. Python 2.7 will end its life in mid-2020 and that's about right, although not soon enough for me! At some point, it's just more fun to develop in and on Python 3. That's where you are seeing the most energy and enthusiasm from Python developers.

Java has been a master of all in almost every field of application development, making the Java developers not wander much in search for other languages. However, things have changed with the steady evolution of Kotlin. Kotlin, no more the "other JVM language" has even surpassed Java's prominence . So,what makes this language stand-out and why is it growing in adoption for application development? What are the benefits of Kotlin vs Java, and how can it help developers? In this article, we’re going to look at the top 5 reasons why Kotlin takes a superior stand over Java and why it will work best for your next development project. Kotlin is more concise Kotlin is way more concise than Java in many cases, solving the same problems with fewer lines of code. This improves code maintainability and readability, meaning engineers can write, read, and change code more effectively and efficiently. Kotlin exclusive features such as type inference, smart casts, data classes, and properties help achieve conciseness. Kotlin’s null-safety is great NullPointerExceptions are a huge source of frustration for Java developers. Java allows you to assign null to any variable, but if you try to use an object reference that has a null value, then brace yourself to encounter a NullPointerException! Kotlin’s type system is aimed to eliminate NullPointerExceptions from the code. This type of system helps to avoid null pointer exceptions by simply refusing to compile code that tries to assign or return null. Combine the best of Functional and Procedural Programming Each set of programming paradigm has its own set of pros and cons. Combining the power of both functional and procedural programming leads to better development and output. It consists of many useful methods, which includes higher-order functions, lambda expressions, operator overloading, lazy evaluation, and much more. With a list of weaknesses and strengths from both languages, Kotlin offers inexpensive and intuitive coding style. The power of Kotlin’s extension functions Extensions of Kotlin are very useful because they allow developers to add methods to classes without making changes to their source code. Here, you can add methods on a per-user basis to classes. This allows users to extend the functionality of existing classes without inheriting the functions and properties from other classes. Interoperability with JAVA When debating between Kotlin vs Java, there is always a third option: Use them both. Despite all the differences Kotlin and Java are 100% interoperable,you can literally continue work on your old Java projects using Kotlin. You can call Kotlin code from Java, and you can call Java code from Kotlin. So it’s possible to have Kotlin and Java classes side-by-side within the same project, and everything will still compile. Undoubtedly, Kotlin has made many positive changes to the long and most used Java. It helps to write safer code, because with less work it's possible to write a more reliable code, thus making the life of programmers a lot easier. Kotlin is really a good replacement for Java. With time, more and more advanced features will be added to the Kotlin’s ecosystem that will help its popularity to grow towards its apex making the developers world more promising. Also read Why are Android developers switching from Java to Kotlin? Getting started with Kotlin programming  

How would you describe programming? Can you describe programming in 5 words? It's pretty difficult. Even explaining it in a basic and straightforward way can be challenging. You type stuff... and then it turns into something else or makes something happen. Or, as is often the case, something doesn't happen. Twitter account @abstractionscon asked its followers "what 5 words best describe programming?" The results didn't disappoint. There was a mix of funny, slightly tragic, and even poetic evocations and descriptions of what programming is and what it feels like. It turns out that more often than not, it simply feels frustrating. Things go wrong a lot. One of the most interesting aspects of the conversation was how it brings to light just how challenging it is to put programming into language. That's reflected in many of the responses to the original tweet. One of the conclusions we can probably draw from this is that not only is describing programming pretty hard, it's also pretty funny. And from that, perhaps it's also true that programming is generally a pretty funny thing to do. But then why would that be surprising? You learn from an early age that getting a computer to do what you want is difficult, so why should writing software be any different? Take a look at some of the best attempts to describe programming below. Which is your favourite? And how would you describe programming? https://twitter.com/alicegoldfuss/status/988818057219854336 https://twitter.com/jennschiffer/status/988849269552578560 https://twitter.com/lindseybieda/status/988941397544890368 https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/988600171075268608 https://twitter.com/tef_ebooks/status/988752549552578560 https://twitter.com/jckarter/status/988828156386684928 https://twitter.com/cassidoo/status/988920470907961344 https://twitter.com/kelseyhightower/status/988646191679209472 https://twitter.com/francesc/status/988653691669446658 https://twitter.com/shanselman/status/988919759377915904 https://twitter.com/chriseng/status/988674723516207104 https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/988649667914186755 https://twitter.com/brianleroux/status/988628362355773440 https://twitter.com/ftrain/status/988759827731148800 https://twitter.com/jbeda/status/988634633087545344 https://twitter.com/kamal/status/988749873347375104 https://twitter.com/fatih/status/988695353171030016 https://twitter.com/innesmck/status/989067129432498176 https://twitter.com/franckverrot/status/988611564168036352 https://twitter.com/dewitt/status/988609620536053760 Thank you Twitter for your insights and jokes. It does make you feel better to know that there are millions of people out there with the same frustrations and software-induced high blood pressure. The next time something goes wrong remember you're really just meat teaching sand to think. Hopefully that should put everything into perspective. Read more: Slow down to learn how to code faster

There has been continuous transformation since the last few years to bring .NET to platforms other than Windows. .NET Core 3.0 released in September 2019 with primary focus on adding Windows specific features. .NET Core 3.0 supports side-by-side and app-local deployments, a fast JSON reader, serial port access and other PIN access for Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, and tiered compilation on by default. In this article we will explore the .Net Core components of its new 3.0 release. This article is an excerpt from the book C# 8.0 and .NET Core 3.0 - Modern Cross-Platform Development - Fourth Edition written by Mark J. Price. Mark follows a step-by-step approach in the book filled with exciting projects and fascinating theory for the readers in this highly acclaimed franchise.  Pieces of .NET Core components These are pieces that play an important role in the development of the .NET Core: Language compilers: These turn your source code written with languages such as C#, F#, and Visual Basic into intermediate language (IL) code stored in assemblies. With C# 6.0 and later, Microsoft switched to an open source rewritten compiler known as Roslyn that is also used by Visual Basic. Common Language Runtime (CoreCLR): This runtime loads assemblies, compiles the IL code stored in them into native code instructions for your computer's CPU, and executes the code within an environment that manages resources such as threads and memory. Base Class Libraries (BCL) of assemblies in NuGet packages (CoreFX): These are prebuilt assemblies of types packaged and distributed using NuGet for performing common tasks when building applications. You can use them to quickly build anything you want rather combining LEGO™ pieces. .NET Core 2.0 implemented .NET Standard 2.0, which is a superset of all previous versions of .NET Standard, and lifted .NET Core up to parity with .NET Framework and Xamarin. .NET Core 3.0 implements .NET Standard 2.1, which adds new capabilities and enables performance improvements beyond those available in .NET Framework. Understanding assemblies, packages, and namespaces An assembly is where a type is stored in the filesystem. Assemblies are a mechanism for deploying code. For example, the System.Data.dll assembly contains types for managing data. To use types in other assemblies, they must be referenced. Assemblies are often distributed as NuGet packages, which can contain multiple assemblies and other resources. You will also hear about metapackages and platforms, which are combinations of NuGet packages. A namespace is the address of a type. Namespaces are a mechanism to uniquely identify a type by requiring a full address rather than just a short name. In the real world, Bob of 34 Sycamore Street is different from Bob of 12 Willow Drive. In .NET, the IActionFilter interface of the System.Web.Mvc namespace is different from the IActionFilter interface of the System.Web.Http.Filters namespace. Understanding dependent assemblies If an assembly is compiled as a class library and provides types for other assemblies to use, then it has the file extension .dll (dynamic link library), and it cannot be executed standalone. Likewise, if an assembly is compiled as an application, then it has the file extension .exe (executable) and can be executed standalone. Before .NET Core 3.0, console apps were compiled to .dll files and had to be executed by the dotnet run command or a host executable. Any assembly can reference one or more class library assemblies as dependencies, but you cannot have circular references. So, assembly B cannot reference assembly A, if assembly A already references assembly B. The compiler will warn you if you attempt to add a dependency reference that would cause a circular reference. Understanding the Microsoft .NET Core App platform By default, console applications have a dependency reference on the Microsoft .NET Core App platform. This platform contains thousands of types in NuGet packages that almost all applications would need, such as the int and string types. When using .NET Core, you reference the dependency assemblies, NuGet packages, and platforms that your application needs in a project file. Let's explore the relationship between assemblies and namespaces. In Visual Studio Code, create a folder named test01 with a subfolder named AssembliesAndNamespaces, and enter dotnet new console to create a console application. Save the current workspace as test01 in the test01 folder and add the AssembliesAndNamespaces folder to the workspace. Open AssembliesAndNamespaces.csproj, and note that it is a typical project file for a .NET Core application, as shown in the following markup: Check out this code on GitHub. Although it is possible to include the assemblies that your application uses with its deployment package, by default the project will probe for shared assemblies installed in well-known paths. First, it will look for the specified version of .NET Core in the current user's .dotnet/store and .nuget folders, and then it looks in a fallback folder that depends on your OS, as shown in the following root paths: Windows: C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk macOS: /usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk Most common .NET Core types are in the System.Runtime.dll assembly. You can see the relationship between some assemblies and the namespaces that they supply types for, and note that there is not always a one-to-one mapping between assemblies and namespaces, as shown in the following table: Assembly Example namespaces Example types System.Runtime.dll System, System.Collections, System.Collections.Generic Int32, String, IEnumerable<T> System.Console.dll System Console System.Threading.dll System.Threading Interlocked, Monitor, Mutex System.Xml.XDocument.dll System.Xml.Linq XDocument, XElement, XNode Understanding NuGet packages .NET Core is split into a set of packages, distributed using a Microsoft-supported package management technology named NuGet. Each of these packages represents a single assembly of the same name. For example, the System.Collections package contains the System.Collections.dll assembly. The following are the benefits of packages: Packages can ship on their own schedule. Packages can be tested independently of other packages. Packages can support different OSes and CPUs by including multiple versions of the same assembly built for different OSes and CPUs. Packages can have dependencies specific to only one library. Apps are smaller because unreferenced packages aren't part of the distribution. The following table lists some of the more important packages and their important types: Package Important types System.Runtime Object, String, Int32, Array System.Collections List<T>, Dictionary<TKey, TValue> System.Net.Http HttpClient, HttpResponseMessage System.IO.FileSystem File, Directory System.Reflection Assembly, TypeInfo, MethodInfo Understanding frameworks There is a two-way relationship between frameworks and packages. Packages define the APIs, while frameworks group packages. A framework without any packages would not define any APIs. .NET packages each support a set of frameworks. For example, the System.IO.FileSystem package version 4.3.0 supports the following frameworks: .NET Standard, version 1.3 or later. .NET Framework, version 4.6 or later. Six Mono and Xamarin platforms (for example, Xamarin.iOS 1.0). Understanding dotnet commands When you install .NET Core SDK, it includes the command-line interface (CLI) named dotnet. Creating new projects The dotnet command-line interface has commands that work on the current folder to create a new project using templates. In Visual Studio Code, navigate to Terminal. Enter the dotnet new -l command to list your currently installed templates, as shown in the following screenshot: Managing projects The dotnet CLI has the following commands that work on the project in the current folder, to manage the project: dotnet restore: This downloads dependencies for the project. dotnet build: This compiles the project. dotnet test: This runs unit tests on the project. dotnet run: This runs the project. dotnet pack: This creates a NuGet package for the project. dotnet publish: This compiles and then publishes the project, either with dependencies or as a self-contained application. add: This adds a reference to a package or class library to the project. remove: This removes a reference to a package or class library from the project. list: This lists the package or class library references for the project. To summarize, we explored the .NET Core components of the new 3.0 release. If you want to learn the fundamentals, build practical applications, and explore latest features of C# 8.0 and .NET Core 3.0, check out our latest book C# 8.0 and .NET Core 3.0 - Modern Cross-Platform Development - Fourth Edition written by Mark J. Price. .NET Framework API Porting Project concludes with .NET Core 3.0 .NET Core 3.0 is now available with C# 8, F# 4.7, ASP.NET Core 3.0 and general availability of EF Core 3.0 and EF 6.3 .NET Core 3.0 Preview 6 is available, packed with updates to compiling assemblies, optimizing applications ASP.NET Core and Blazor Inspecting APIs in ASP.NET Core [Tutorial] Use App Metrics to analyze HTTP traffic, errors & network performance of a .NET Core app [Tutorial]

Building cross-platform desktop applications can be difficult. It requires you to have knowledge of specific tools and technologies for each platform you want to target. Wouldn't it be great if you could write and maintain a single codebase and that too with your existing web development skills? Electron helps you do exactly that. It is a framework for building cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Electron was originally not a separate project but was actually built to port the Mac-only Atom text editor to different platforms. The Atom team at GitHub tried out solutions like Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) and node-webkit (now known as NW.js), but nothing was working right. This is when Cheng Zhao, a GitHub engineer started a new project and rewrote node-webkit from scratch. This project was Atom Shell, that we now know as Electron. It was open-sourced in 2014 and was renamed to Electron in May 2015. To get an insight into why so many companies are adopting Electron, we interviewed Denys Vuika, a veteran programmer and author of the book Electron Projects. He also talked about when you should choose Electron, best practices for building secure Electron apps, and more. Electron Projects is a project-based guide that will help you explore the components of the Electron framework and its integration with other JS libraries to build 12 real-world desktop apps with an increasing level of complexity. When is Electron the best bet and when is it not  Many popular applications are built using Electron including VSCode, GitHub Desktop, and Slack. It enables developers to deliver new features fast, while also maintaining consistency with all platforms. Vuika says, “The cost and speed of the development, code reuse are the main reasons I believe. The companies can effectively reuse existing code to build desktop applications that look and behave exactly the same across the platforms. No need to have separate developer teams for various platforms.” When we asked Vuika about why he chose Electron, he said, “Historically, I got into the Electron app development to build applications that run on macOS and Linux, alongside traditional Windows platform. I didn't want to study another stack just to build for macOS, so Electron shell with the web-based content was extremely appealing.” Sharing when you should choose Electron, he said, "Electron is the best bet when you want to have a single codebase and single developer team working with all major platforms. Web developers should have a very minimal learning curve to get started with Electron development. And the desktop application codebase can also be shared with the website counterpart. That saves a huge amount of time and money. Also, the Node.js integration with millions of useful packages to cover all possible scenarios." The case when it is not a good choice is, “if you are just trying to wrap the website functionality into a desktop shell. The biggest benefit of Electron applications is access to the local file system and hardware.” Building Electron application using Angular, React, Vue Electron integrates with all the three most popular JavaScript frameworks: React, Vue, and Angular. All these three have their own pros and cons. If you are coming from a JavaScript background, React could probably be a good option as it has much less abstraction away from vanilla JS. Other advantages are it is very flexible, you can extend its core functionality by adding libraries, and it is backed by a great community. Vue is a lightweight framework that’s easier to learn and get productive. Angular has exceptional TypeScript support and includes dependency injections, Http services, internationalization, formatting pipes, server-side rendering, a CLI, animations and much more. When it comes to Electron, choosing one of them depends on which framework you are comfortable with and what fits your needs. Vuika recommends, "There are three pretty much big developer camps out there: React, Angular and Vue. All of them focus on web components and client applications, so it’s a matter of personal preferences or historical decisions if speaking about companies. Also, each JavaScript framework has more than one set of mature UI libraries and design systems, so there are always options to choose from. For novice developers he recommends, “keep in mind it is still a web stack. Pick whatever you are comfortable to build a web application with." Vuika's book, Electron Projects, has a dedicated chapter, Integrating Electron applications with Angular, React, and Vue to help you learn how to integrate them with your Electron apps. Tips on building performant and secure apps Electron’s core components are Chromium, more specifically the libchromiumcontent library, Node.js, and of Chromium Google V8 javascript engine. Each Electron app ships with its own isolated copy of Chromium, which could affect their memory footprint as well as the bundle size. Sharing other reasons Vuika said, “It has some memory footprint but, based on my personal experience, most of the memory issues are usually related to the application implementation and resource management rather than the Electron shell itself.” Some of the best practices that the Electron team recommends are: examining modules and their dependencies before adding to your applications, ensuring the main process is not blocked, among others. You can find the full checklist on Electron’s official site. Vuika suggests, “Electron developers have all the development toolset they use for web development: Chrome Developer Tools with debuggers, profilers, and many other great features. There are also build tools for each frontend framework that allow minification, code splitting, and tree shaking. Routing libraries allow loading only the content the user needs at a particular point. Many areas to improve memory and resource consumption.” More recently, some developers have also started using Rust and also recommend using WebAssembly with Electron to minimize the Electron pain points while enjoying its benefits.  Coming to security, Vuika says, “With Electron, a web application can have nearly full access to the local file system and operating system resources by means of the Node.js process. Developers should be very careful trusting web content, especially if using remotely served HTML content.”   “Electron team has recently published a very good article on the security that I strongly recommend to read and keep in the bookmarks. The article dwells on explaining major security pitfalls, as well as ways to harden your applications,” he recommends. Meanwhile, Electron is also improving with its every subsequent release. Starting with Electron 6.0 the team has started laying “the groundwork for a future requirement that native Node modules loaded in the renderer process be either N-API or Context Aware.” This update is expected to come in Electron 11.0.  “Also, keep in mind that Electron keeps improving and evolving all the time. It is getting more secure and faster with each next release. For developers, it is more important to build the knowledge of creating and debugging applications, as for me,” he adds. About the author Denys Vuika is an Applications Platform Developer and Tech Lead at Alfresco Software, Inc. He is a full-stack developer and a constant open source contributor, with more than 16 years of programming experience, including ten years of front-end development with AngularJS, Angular, ASP.NET, React.js and other modern web technologies, more than three years of Node.js development. Denys works with web technologies on a daily basis, has a good understanding of Cloud development, and containerization of the web applications. Denys Vuika is a frequent Medium blogger and the author of the "Developing with Angular" book on Angular, Javascript, and Typescript development. He also maintains a series of Angular-based open source projects. Check out Vuika’s latest book, Electron Projects on PacktPub. This book is a project-based guide to help you create, package, and deploy desktop applications on multiple platforms using modern JavaScript frameworks Follow Denys Vuika on Twitter: @DenysVuika. Electron 6.0 releases with improved Promise support, native Touch ID authentication support, and more The Electron team publicly shares the release timeline for Electron 5.0 How to create a desktop application with Electron [Tutorial]

Bill Gates is quoted as saying that we tend to overestimate the pace of change over a period of 2 years, but underestimate change over a decade. It’s an astute observation: much of what will matter in 2019 actually looks a lot like what we said will be important in development this year. But if you look back 10 years, the change in the types of applications and websites we build - as well as how we build them - is astonishing. The web as we understood it in 2008 is almost unrecognisable. Today, we are in the midst of the app and API economy. Notions of surfing the web sound almost as archaic as a dial up tone. Similarly, the JavaScript framework boom now feels old hat - building for browsers just sounds weird... So, as we move into 2019, progressive web apps, artificial intelligence, and native app development remain at the top of development agenda. But this doesn’t mean these changes are to be ignored as empty hype. If anything, as adoption increases and new tools emerge, we will begin to see more radical shifts in ways of working. The cutting edge will need to sharpen itself elsewhere. What will it mean to be a web developer in 2019? But these changes are enforcing wider changes in the industry. Arguably, it’s transforming what it means to be a web developer. As applications become increasingly lightweight (thanks to libraries and frameworks like React and Vue), and data becomes more intensive, thanks to the range of services upon which applications and websites depend, developers need to expand across the stack. You can see this in some of the latest Packt titles - in Modern JavaScript Web Development Cookbook, for example, you’ll learn microservices and native app development - topics that have typically fallen outside of the strict remit of web development. The simplification of many aspects of development has, ironically, forced developers to look more closely at how these aspects fit together. As you move further into layers of abstraction, the way things interact and work alongside each other become vital. For the most part, it’s no longer a case of writing the requisite code to make something run on the specific part of the application you’re working on, it’s rather about understanding how the various pieces - from the backend to the front end - fit together. This means, in 2019, you need to dive deeper and get to know your software systems inside out. Get comfortable with the backend. Dive into cloud. Start playing with microservices. Rethink and revisit languages you thought you knew. Get to know your infrastructure: tackling the challenges of API development It might sound strange, but as the stack shrinks and the responsibilities of developers - web and otherwise - shift, understanding the architectural components within the software their building is essential. You could blame some of this on DevOps - essentially, it has made developers responsible for how their code runs once it hits production. Because of this important change, the requisite skills and toolchain for the modern developer is also expanding. There are a range of routes into software architecture, but exploring API design is a good place to begin. Hands on RESTful API Design offers a practical way into the topic. While REST is the standard for API design, the diverse range of tools and approaches is making managing the client a potentially complex but interesting area. GraphQL, a query language developed by Facebook is said to have killed off REST (although we wouldn’t be so hasty), while Redux and Relay, two libraries for managing data in React applications, have seen a lot of interest over the last 12 months as two key tools for working with APIs. Want to get started with GraphQL? Try Beginning GraphQL. Learn Redux with Learning Redux.       Microservices: take responsibility for your infrastructure The reason that we’re seeing so many tools offering ways of managing APIs is that microservices are becoming the dominant architectural mode. This requires developer attention too. That’s not to say that you need to implement microservices now (in fact, there are probably many reasons not to), but if you want to be building software in 5 years time, getting to grips with the principles behind microservices and the tools that can help you use them. Perhaps one of the central technologies driving microservices are containers. You could run microservices in a virtual machine, but because they’re harder to scale than containers, you probably wouldn’t be seeing the benefits you’d be expecting from a microservices architecture. This means getting to grips with core container technologies is vital. Docker is the obvious place to start. There are varying degrees to which developers need to understand it, but even if you don’t think you’ll be using it immediately it does give you a nice real-world foundation in containers if you don’t already have one. Watch and learn how to put Docker to work with the Hands on Docker for Microservices video.  But beyond Docker, Kubernetes is the go to tool that allows you to scale and orchestrate containers. This gives you control over how you scale application services in a way that you probably couldn’t have imagined a decade ago. Get a grounding in Kubernetes with Getting Started with Kubernetes - Third Edition, or follow a 7 day learning plan with Kubernetes in 7 Days. If you want to learn how Docker and Kubernetes come together as part of a fully integrated approach to development, check out Hands on Microservices with Node.js. It's time for developers to embrace cloud It should come as no surprise that, if the general trend is towards full stack, where everything is everyone’s problem, that developers simply can’t afford to ignore cloud. And why would you want to - the levels of abstraction it offers, and the various services and integrations that come with the leading cloud services can make many elements of the development process much easier. Issues surrounding scale, hardware, setup and maintenance almost disappear when you use cloud. That’s not to say that cloud platforms don’t bring their own set of challenges, but they do allow you to focus on more interesting problems. But more importantly, they open up new opportunities. Serverless becomes a possibility - allowing you to scale incredibly quickly by running everything on your cloud provider, but there are other advantages too. Want to get started with serverless? Check out some of these titles… JavaScript Cloud Native Development Cookbook Hands-on Serverless Architecture with AWS Lambda [Video] Serverless Computing with Azure [Video] For example, when you use cloud you can bring advanced features like artificial intelligence into your applications. AWS has a whole suite of machine learning tools - AWS Lex can help you build conversational interfaces, while AWS Polly turns text into speech. Similarly, Azure Cognitive Services has a diverse range of features for vision, speech, language, and search. What cloud brings you, as a developer, is a way of increasing the complexity of applications and processes, while maintaining agility. Adding in features and optimizations previously might have felt sluggish - maybe even impossible. But by leveraging AWS and Azure (among others), you can do much more than you previously realised. Back to basics: New languages, and fresh approaches With all of this ostensible complexity in contemporary software development, you’d be forgiven for thinking that languages simply don’t matter. That’s obviously nonsense. There’s an argument that gaining a deeper understanding of how languages work, what they offer, and where they may be weak, can make you a much more accomplished developer. Be prepared is sage advice for a world where everything is unpredictable - both in the real world and inside our software systems too. So, you have two options - and both are smart. Either go back to a language you know and explore a new paradigm or learn a new language from scratch. Learn a new language: Kotlin Quick Start Guide Hands-On Go Programming Mastering Go Learning TypeScript 2.x - Second Edition     Explore a new programming paradigm: Functional Programming in Go [Video] Mastering Functional Programming Hands-On Functional Programming in RUST Hands-On Object-Oriented Programming with Kotlin     2019: the same, but different, basically... It's not what you should be saying if you work for a tech publisher, but I'll be honest: software development in 2019 will look a lot like it has in 2018.  But that doesn't mean you have time to be complacent. In just a matter of years, much of what feels new or ‘emerging’ today will be the norm. You don’t have to look hard to see the set of skills many full stack developer job postings are asking for - the demands are so diverse that adaptability is clearly immensely valuable both for your immediate projects and future career prospects. So, as 2019 begins, commit to developing yourself sharpening your skill set.

Progressive Web Apps are already being deployed at a massive scale evidenced by their presence on most websites now. But what’s next for PWA? Alex Kehayis, developer at Stripe things its the merging of WebAssembly to PWA. According to him, the adoption of WebAssembly and ease of distribution on the web creates compelling new opportunities for application development. He has created what he calls Progressive Webassembly Applications (PWAAs) which is built entirely using Rust. In his talk at WebAssembly San Francisco Meetup, Alex walks through the creation of Woz, a PWA toolchain for Rust. Woz is a progressive WebAssembly app generator (PWAA) for Rust. Woz makes distributing your app as simple as sharing a hyperlink. Read Also: Fastly CTO Tyler McMullen on Lucet and the future of WebAssembly and Rust [Interview] Web content has become efficient Alex begins his talk by pointing out how web content has become massively efficient; this is because it solves three problems: Distribution: Actually serving content to your users Unification: Write once and run it everywhere Experience: Consume content in a low friction environment Mobile applications vs Web applications Applications are kind of an elevated form of content. They tend to be more experiential, dynamic, and interactive. Alex points out the definition of ‘application’ from Wikipedia, which states that applications are software that is designed to perform a group of coordinated functions tasks and activities for the benefit of users. Despite all progress, mobile apps are still hugely inefficient to create, distribute, and use. Its distribution is generally in the hands of the duopoly, Apple and Google. The unification is generally handled through third-party frameworks such as React Native, or Xamarin. User experience on mobile apps, although performant leads to high friction as a user has to generally switch between apps, take time for it to install, load etc. Web based applications on the other hand are quite efficient to create, distribute and use. Anybody who's got an internet connection and a browser can go through the web application. For web applications, unification happens through standards, unlike frameworks which is more efficient. User experience is also quite dynamic and fast; you jump right into it and don't have to necessarily install anything. Should everybody just use web apps instead of mobile apps? Although mobile applications are a bit inefficient, they bring certain features: Native application has better performance than web based apps Encapsulation (e.g. home screen, self-contained experience) Mobile apps are offline by default Mobile apps use Hardware/sensors Native apps typically consume less battery than web apps In order to get the best of both worlds, Alex suggests the following steps: Bring web applications to mobile This has already been implemented and are called Progressive web applications Improve the state of performance and providing access. Alex says that WebAssembly is a viable choice for achieving this. WebAssembly is highly performant when it's paired with a language like Rust. Progressive WebAssembly Applications Woz, a Progressive WebAssembly Application generator Alex proceeds to talk about Woz, which is a progressive WebAssembly application generator.  It combines all the good things of a PWA and WebAssembly and works as a toolchain for building and deploying performant mobile apps with Rust. You can distribute your app as simply as sharing a hyperlink. Woz brings distribution via browsers, unification via web standards, and experience via hyperlinks. Woz uses wasm-bindgen to generate the interop calls between WebAssembly and JavaScript. This allows you to write the entire application in Rust—including rendering to the DOM. It will soon be coming with ‘managed charging’ for your apps and even provide multiple copies your users can share all with a hyperlink. Unlike all the things you need for a PWA (SSL certificate, PWA Manifest, Splash screen, Home screen icons, Service worker), PWAAs requires JS bindings to WebAssembly and to fetch, compile, and run wasm. His talks also talked about some popular Rust-based frontend frameworks Yew: “Yew is a modern Rust framework inspired by Elm and React for creating multi-threaded frontend apps with WebAssembly.” Sauron: “Sauron is an html web framework for building web-apps. It is heavily inspired by elm.” Percy: “A modular toolkit for building isomorphic web apps with Rust + WebAssembly” Seed: “A Rust framework for creating web apps” Read Also: “Rust is the future of systems programming, C is the new Assembly”: Intel principal engineer Josh Triplett With Woz, the goal, Alex says, was to stay in Rust and create a PWA that can be installed to your home screen. The sample app that he created only weighs about 300Kb. Alex says, “In order to actually write the app, you really only need one entry point - it’s a public method render that's decorated wasm_bindgen. The rest will kind of figure itself out. You don't necessarily need to go create your own JavaScript file.” He then proceeded to show a quick demo of what it looks like. What’s next? WebAssembly will continue to evolve. More languages and ecosystem can target WebAssembly. Progressive web apps will continue to evolve. PWAAs are an interesting proposition. We should really be liberating mobile apps and bringing them to the web. I think web assembly is kind of a missing link to some of these things. Watch Alex Kehayis’s full talk on YouTube. Slides are available here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ySua0-c4jg Other news in Tech Wasmer’s first Postgres extension to run WebAssembly is here! 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