software development « Tim Anderson's ITWriting

Microsoft and mediocrity in programming

By tim, on June 15th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

A post by Ahmet Alp Balkan on working as a developer at Microsoft has stimulated much discussion. Balkan says he joined Microsoft 8 months ago (or two years ago if you count when he started as an intern) and tells a depressing tale (couched in odd language) of poor programming practice. Specifically:

Lack of documentation

…continue reading Microsoft and mediocrity in programming

Build Mac and iOS apps in Visual Studio: Oxygene for Cocoa

By tim, on May 29th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Remobjects has released Oxygene for Cocoa, which lets you build apps for Mac and iOS using Visual Studio and the Oxygene language.

Oxygene is a Delphi-like language, making this an easy transition for Delphi developers. Until the most recent release, a version of Oxygene, called Prism, was bundled with Delphi, though this targeted .NET rather

…continue reading Build Mac and iOS apps in Visual Studio: Oxygene for Cocoa

Miguel de Icaza: don’t blame Google for Microsoft’s contempt for developers

By tim, on May 16th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Xamarin’s Miguel de Icaza (founder of the Mono project) has complained on Twitter about Microsoft’s Windows Division’s “contempt for developers” when it created the Windows Runtime and a “4th incompatible Xaml stack”, in a conversation prompted by the company’s spat with Google over the YouTube app for Windows Phone. Google wants this removed because it

…continue reading Miguel de Icaza: don’t blame Google for Microsoft’s contempt for developers

Official Google Android Studio is based on JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA

By tim, on May 15th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Back in January I asked IntelliJ IDEA: the best IDE for programming Android? Google says yes. At the IO conference today, the company announced the official Android Studio – and it a version of IntelliJ IDEA.

Android Studio is currently in preview.

…continue reading Official Google Android Studio is based on JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA

RAD Studio XE4 with Delphi for iOS is here. Who will use it?

By tim, on April 25th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Embarcadero has released RAD Studio XE4, its suite of development tools for Window, Web and for the first time, Apple iOS. iOS support first appeared in an earlier release, but in preview, and the current effort works using a new LLVM-based ARM compiler so is somewhat unlike the preview. Individual products such as Delphi XE4

…continue reading RAD Studio XE4 with Delphi for iOS is here. Who will use it?

Changes in the Delphi language for ARM and mobile support

By tim, on April 25th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Delphi developers should note changes in the Delphi language coming as a result of the move towards the LLVM compiler for mobile support. Embarcadero has released a paper describing these in detail. The just-released RAD Studio XE4 includes the ARM compiler for iOS, with an Android compiler to follow later this year.

It seems to

…continue reading Changes in the Delphi language for ARM and mobile support

No more Delphi for .NET: Prism removed from RAD Studio XE4

By tim, on April 19th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Embarcadero is removing Prism from the next version of RAD Studio, XE4, expected later this month.

Prism is actually a third-party product, based on RemObjects Oxygene. Prism and Oxygene let you code in Delphi and compile to .NET or Mono.

Marc Hoffman from RemObjects explains the change here:

Starting with the upcoming release of

…continue reading No more Delphi for .NET: Prism removed from RAD Studio XE4

Xamarin acquires LessPainful, announces Test Cloud for mobile apps

By tim, on April 16th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Xamarin, a company which provides tools for cross-platform development in C#, has announced its acquisition of LessPainful and the creation of cloud-based testing for mobile apps based on LessPainful’s technology and the Calabash scripting language it created.

The Test Cloud will perform automated user-interface tests on real devices, hosted by Xamarin, will provide detailed reports

…continue reading Xamarin acquires LessPainful, announces Test Cloud for mobile apps

Intel fights back against iOS with free tools for HTML5 cross-platform mobile development

By tim, on April 16th, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Today at its Software Conference in Paris Intel presented its HTML5 development tools.

There are several components, starting with the XDK, a cross-platform development kit based on HTML5, CSS and JavaScript designed to be packaged as mobile apps using Cordova, the open source variant of PhoneGap.

There is an intriguing comment here:

The XDK

…continue reading Intel fights back against iOS with free tools for HTML5 cross-platform mobile development

Twilio integrates with Google App Engine for cloud telephony applications

By tim, on April 2nd, 2013 Follow tim on Twitter

Cloud telephony company Twilio has announced a partnership with Google to integrate its API with App Engine, Google’s platform for cloud applications. Google has a clear explanation of what this enables here. You can have your application respond to incoming SMS texts or voice calls, and send an SMS back, or for voice, play messages,

…continue reading Twilio integrates with Google App Engine for cloud telephony applications

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