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The latest version of the programming language Rust is now available. Rust 1.54 introduces a few new stable features. One new update is that attributes can invoke function-like macros. An example use case of is including documentation from other files into comments. “For example, if your project’s README represents a good documentation comment, you can use include_str! to directly incorporate the contents,” the Rust team explained in a post .  According to the team, there were previously some workarounds that would allow for this functionality, but this makes it more ergonomic.  Another new addition is the move to stable for several intrinsics for the wasm32 platform. Unlike the x86 and x86_64 intrinsics that are already stabilized, these don’t have a safety requirement where they can only be called if the appropriate target feature is enabled. This is because WebAssembly validates code safely before it is executed so instructions are guaranteed to either be decoded correctly or no

The July 2021 update of Visual Studio Code C++ introduces new features such as Disassembly View while debugging, inline macro expansions, and debug support for Windows ARM64 architecture.  Disassembly View allows users to debug assembly code corresponding to the instructions created by their compiler and will be included in the 1.59 release of Visual Studio Code in August. With the July 2021 update of the C++ extension, users can debug projects on Windows ARM64, completing the end-to-end Surface Pro X C++ development experience in VS Code.  .NET Framework July 2021 update preview The new preview release includes quality and reliability improvements such as a fix that CLR solves serious lock contention during generation 2 GC heaps and a  The new version also fixes an issue where some Windows Forms applications that use ToolStrip controls with ToolStripControlHost, and run under UIA Accessibility Tools, could make Accessibility Tools unresponsive. The Cumulative Update Preview is a

Marko is an open-source programming language that reimagines HTML from a markup language into a programming language. As its website states: “It’s like HTML and JS had a perfect baby that grew up to be awesome.” It does not require learning any new language syntax beyond what’s available in vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which means it’s easy to pick up.  Marko is easily scalable, according to the project’s website. Developers can start building on a simple HTML template and then add powerful components as they’re needed.  It offers progressive rendering, which enables content to be streamed instantly rather than having users wait for client side JavaScript bundles or data requests to start rendering. “HTML, assets, and images are loaded as soon as possible with asynchronous data loading in as it completes,” the website states.  In addition, the only code Marko sends to the browser is what’s needed for interactive components. This results in less to download and execute, leadi

The Android team at Google has announced that Jetpack Compose 1.0 is now available. Jetpack Compose is a UI toolkit for Android developers.  According to the team, Compose has been developed in the open for the past two years with participation from the Android community. As of this 1.0 release, there are already 2000 apps in the Play Store that have utilized Compose.  “We designed Compose to make it faster and easier to build native Android apps. With a fully declarative approach, you just describe your UI, and Compose takes care of the rest. As app state changes, your UI automatically updates, making it a lot simpler to build UI quickly. Intuitive Kotlin APIs help you build beautiful apps with way less code, and native access to all existing Android code means you can adopt at your own pace. Powerful layout APIs and code-driven UI make it easy to support different form factors, like tablets and foldables, and Compose support is coming for WearOS, Homescreen Widgets, and more,” An

Android Studio Arctic Fox is now available as a stable release. This version introduces Jetpack Compose 1.0 and focuses on devices and developer productivity.  Device enhancements include a new Wear OS pairing assistant to make it easier to pair Wear OS emulations; the completion of the development and testing workflow for Automotive OS, enabling the emulator to now use car sensor data to simulate driving; and out-of-the-box support for landscape in templates to better support apps for tablets. Productivity enhancements include lint checks for Android 12, an Accessibility Scanner for Layout Editor, Test Matrix for viewing test results across multiple devices, preview support for Apple Silicon, and a Background Task Inspector to help analyze background workers.  Uno Platform 3.9 According to the company, this latest release adds support for .NET 6, support for Visual Studio 2022 templates, WinAppSDK 0.8.1, Focus management updates, and a XAML Trimming feature that reduces the size o

The latest version of JetBrains’ Java IDE is now available. IntelliJ IDEA 2021.2 includes several updates aimed at improving the daily experience of the platform. It includes a new project-wide analysis feature that allows developers to track errors before compiling the code.  JetBrains also added a number of actions that will activate when a project is saved. These include things such as reformatting code and optimizing imports.  Markdown support has also been improved. Developers will now be able to convert .md files to and from different formats, configure image sizes, and use drag and drop to add images. There is also a new Floating Toolbar and JetBrains fixed list formatting issues.  Several user experience updates were also made, including: The ability to open locally stored Eclipse projects from the dedicated folder on the Welcome screen Use-case-specific Advanced Settings The ability to organize tool windows by dragging and dropping them Automatic cleanup of caches a

The digital services and consulting provider Infosys unveiled a new set of Enterprise Agile DevOps capabilities that will help businesses strengthen customer-centricity and innovation. Enterprises can transform the way they develop and deliver products and services by reimaging customer journeys.  “Forward thinking firms are now evolving to a product centric operating model to ingrain customer centricity, business agility and innovation in the fabric of their organizations. Building product management and experience design capabilities are becoming the need of the hour,” said Ravi Kumar S, president of Infosys. At Infosys, we leverage our wide range of Enterprise Agile DevOps platforms, expertise, and tools to help clients create new ways of collaboration, orchestrate, and deliver products and solutions against robust business outcomes.” Algolia announces Series D funding Algolia announced that it received $150 million in Series D funding that the company will use to scale, serve

As evidenced in the world of business, government and everyday life, the technology of biometrics is widespread and expanding. For example, people can unlock their smartphones with their faces. Banks can recognize customers by the sound of their voice, and police can identify suspects with automated fingerprinting. These are just some of the common applications for biometrics. But while the technology offers many benefits – from convenience and faster service, to better safety and security , it is also an industry marked with challenges. There are many privacy concerns with biometrics, and many unanswered questions about how to address them. What Is Biometric Technology? Biometric technology automatically identifies people based on their unique biological characteristics such as physical traits including face, fingerprints, iris, retina and DNA, as well as behavioral traits like voice, gait, mannerisms and signature.  Most biometric systems work in a similar way. A sensor collect

IBM has announced the next generation of its operating system for its IBM Z systems, which are a suite of mainframe servers. IBM z/OS V2.5 is designed to accelerate the adoption of hybrid cloud and AI as well as drive modernization initiatives.  A recent study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value revealed that 71% of executives claim mainframe-based applications are still central to business strategy. Further, the study predicted that within three years the percentage of businesses using mainframe assets in a hybrid cloud setup will increase by two times.  IBM z/OS V2.5 features tightly integrated high performance AI functionality. The new AI improvements are designed to enable more informed decision making. New security capabilities include expanding pervasive encryption to basic and large format SMS-managed data sets and anomaly mitigation capabilities that utilize Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA), Runtime Diagnostics, Workload Manager (WLM), and JES2.  The OS upda

DataRobot announced that it’s acquiring the MLOps platform Algorithmia to deepen its capabilities to unlock value from AI through better, faster, frictionless solutions for every part of the modern enterprise. “We understand that businesses cannot get the value of their ML models unless they have the ability to deliver those models quickly, reliably, and at scale,” said Diego Oppenheimer, the CEO of Algorithmia. “It’s been clear to us for many years that DataRobot shares this philosophy, and we’re thrilled to combine our dedication of enabling customers to thrive in today’s market by delivering more models in production, faster, while protecting their business.” Algorithmia’s model serving will be integrated into DataRobot’s existing monitoring and model management capabilities so that customers will be able to run any machine learning model.  Synopsys announces Rapid Scan  Synopsys announced the availability of new Rapid Scan capabilities within the company’s application security

In recent years, DevSecOps has risen in popularity to an extraordinary extent. It has changed the way in which developers approach security and creating code for applications. It has led to projects being secured from start to finish and has increased productivity among developers. This post covers some of the reasons why DevSecOps has become so popular. It could give you a better indication about the benefits of incorporating it if you aren’t already, as well as why developers may prefer a DevSecOps approach to working on projects. What is DevSecOps? DevSecOps stands for Development, Security, a nd Operations. It involves automating the process of implementing security throughout every stage of software development. This means that security is taken seriously from the beginning design stages, all the way through to the deployment and delivery stages. This approach to developing and deploying software has helped organizations keep their applications safe. It has also enabled devel

Despite C++’s downward trend on the TIOBE Programming Community index since 2001, the language’s fall from the coveted top two slots in 2020, vociferous and persistent claims that C++ is “ dead like COBOL ,” and the inroads the Rust is making in developer circles – C++ is still as viable, vital and relevant as ever.  There’s no arguing with the language’s ongoing popularity. The numbers are clear in the June 2021 TIOBE index – C++ is the fourth most popular programming language on the planet, grabbing almost 7.5% on the index, and nipping at the heels of C, Java and Python. While it’s true that this is a drop from the language’s TIOBE peak of nearly 18% in 2003, C++’s popularity remains undeniable. How and why can a programming language standardized nearly a decade before the first iPhone was released remain relevant in the age of cloud and high-performance computing? Let’s take a look… Still popular, still relevant What are the core reasons behind C++’s continuing mass-m

Everywhere you look, companies are involved in some sort of digital transformation. For some, it means moving their entire business to the cloud which may include building or purchasing software for payroll, ordering, fulfillment and many other activities. For larger firms, entrenched with legacy applications, it means migrating or rewriting hundreds or perhaps thousands of applications to the cloud . This is no small feat, given the complexity and brittleness of many legacy applications. These applications have existed in some companies for decades and have been duct taped and “band aided” along the way to keep them working and stable. Developers have bolted on upgrade after upgrade, adding 3 rd party security features, web and mobile capabilities and so forth.  A digital transformation for many larger companies is an ongoing process, taking years to evaluate and move through the myriad complex applications, many mission critical and many very fragile. There’s a lot to consider

Altova announced the release of MobileTogether 7.3, a rapid app development platform for building enterprise solutions.  The latest release introduces options to enable in-app purchases in the native iOS, Android, and Windows apps they create using MobileTogether and the ability to embed the MobileTogether Windows client in one’s own UWP.  It also adds support for tooltips, Android 11, and support for additional database versions. Additional details are available here .  Sila raises $13 million in Series A round The API platform provider Sila announced that it raised $13 million in a Series A funding round led by Revolution Ventures. Its total funding is now at $20 million. “Sila’s mission has always been to make money programmable. Access to the U.S. banking system, especially for innovators and entrepreneurs, is extremely complex and prohibitive. The Sila Money API platform provides easy, scalable, and compliant money storage and money transfer,” said Shamir Karkal, co-founder a

The performance of world-class athletes as they train for the Olympic games and engineering the performance of your applications in preparation for production releases share some interesting traits. In this blog, I want to share some basic guiding principles that will help make your applications finish strong. Efficiency, Not Just Speed Not every Olympic sport is a speed race. There are plenty of other areas where winning is about strength or agility. All events aren’t equal in terms of physical demands, nor do all events focus on the same kind of capability. Efficiency is the common thread. Whether you are skiing down a slope or lifting a heavy weight, generally the more efficiently the tasks are carried out, the better the score. When it comes to applications, the same is true. Many times, performance engineering as an activity is all about measuring how fast something is or how fast it can be tuned to be. However, speed for the sake of speed can lead to other issues. I have heard

As part of AWS Activate and New Relic for Startups, startup founders and engineering teams get exclusive discounts, free credits, and support for New Relic’s cloud-based observability platform. “While you might have a great product market fit, a prototype, and a pitch deck, an idea is often only as good as the infrastructure you have to scale it. With this in mind, we’ve recently launched New Relic for Startups as part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Activate Console to help builders build faster from day 0,” John Kinmonth, director of product marketing at New Relic wrote in a blog post .  Users can start with unlimited access to the same tools used by large organizations, get instant monitoring for their entire AWS environment, and establish DevOps and data-driven engineering practices early. Visual Studio 2022 for Mac Private Preview Microsoft announced the first release of its .NET IDE with a refreshed, fully native macOS UI.  The release focuses on improving IDE performance

Accessibility Insights is an open source project created by Microsoft aimed at helping developers build more accessible software.  It was created internally at Microsoft and then released as an open source solution in 2019.  “We were motivated by Microsoft’s mission to ‘empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.’ We realized that to empower every person, we need to help support all developers in building more accessible products. The power of open-source software is increasing transparency into our methodologies and encouraging trust in our tools. It also allows us to accept contributions and to allow developers to experiment with our tools. These products belong to the community now and I am excited to see how we will develop them together over the coming years,” Mark Reay, principal group software engineering manager for Microsoft, wrote in a post .  RELATED CONTENT: Global Accessibility Awareness Day highlights need for developer education The

Google today announced new features that will help organizations deliver data-driven experiences at scale in Looker 21, the platform that allows anyone in a business to quickly analyze and find insights in datasets. One new feature is the Extension Framework available as part of the new Looker Developer Portal.  The framework allows developers to build applications and data experiences easier by letting it handle hosting, authentication, authorization, and more. “It reduces developer friction by handling the hosting, security, and DevOps, so developers can focus solely on building a great user experience and trust that delivering it won’t be a struggle,” Pedro Arellano, the director of Looker Outbound Product Management, wrote in a blog post .  Also, the new components for filters feature brings the filters on any dashboard in Looker into any embedded application or extension. Developers can make changes to the filters on the Looker dashboard and automatically get them reflected in

The Xamarin.Essentials 1.7 release focuses on critical bug fixes and introduces enhancements to the Web Authenticator API. There is a new API for private authentication sessions on iOS. Also, Microsoft introduced .NET MAUI Essentials as the future of Xamarin.Forms and is now directly integrated into .NET MAUI starting with .NET 6 Preview 6 and .NET MAUI Preview 6.  New features and APIs will only be added to .NET MAUI Essentials going forward. Additional details on the new releases are available here .  Jamf announces enhancements to Jamf Marketplace and Jamf Developer Portal  The Jamf Marketplace now integrates with Jamf Account, so that IT admins can experience a simplified experience when dealing with access and user rating and so that users can have an elevated user experience.  Also, enhancements have been made to the functionality, navigation, and resources available in the portal. Developers looking to build integrations with Jamf’s latest products can find information ab

There is no denying the fact that building your own gaming app creates a lot of potential revenue for the app developers. We have a lot of examples to cite this fact, starting from Angry Birds to Candy Crush and many more. To get to the top of creating a beneficial game, you would need to develop a blueprint of who your target audience is and what they are seeking in the world of today. You would also need to build gameplay that is interesting and innovative. Finally, do not forget to monetize your gaming app strategically. But, how to do all this? Look at the list of easy steps below to clear your doubts. How to Make a Game App? Here are the most influential steps for developing a successful game app design and eventually an app: 1. What is Your Idea? How will you move forward without developing ideation for your game? It is always suggested to brainstorm a couple of innovative ideas, research the scope in each of those ideas, and come out with something unique. It is also im