Programming News Picks: Focus on Free Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-02-16 23:26:19 UTC
- Modified: 2014-02-16 23:26:19 UTC
Summary: 2014 news picks that focus on programming and development, especially of Free software or using Free software tools
Demise of Proprietary
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HTML5 developers queried recently by tools vendor Sencha remain dedicated to building apps via Web technologies, even as doubts have been cast on how effective HTML5 is vis à vis native development. Many of those same developers, however, have dropped support for the classic Microsoft Windows platform.
Surveying 2,128 business application developers from the HTML5 development community, including users of its own tools, Sencha found that 70-plus percent of developers planned to do more with HTML5 in the 2013 timeframe than they had done the previous year. And 75 percent will work further with HTML5 in 2014. More than 60 percent of developers have migrated to HTML5 and hybrid development for primary applications. For the coming year, just 4 percent of HTML5 developers plan to cut back on HTML5.
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I still remember IBM's provocative announcement in 2001 that it was putting $1 billion toward the development and promotion of Linux. While such billion-dollar commitments from IBM are now so routine as to be unremarkable, back then a billion dollars meant a lot. I was working for an embedded Linux vendor at the time, and most of our sales cycle was spent explaining why GPL-licensed Linux wasn't the technology equivalent of terminal cancer. (Thanks in part to Microsoft's contribution.)
Google
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The second video features Jason Hibbets's full interview with Chris DiBona Open Source Director at Google. Find out how DiBona measures his performance, why he once called open source "brutal," and more on working for Google and the future of open source.
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Over 280 attendees representing 177 mentoring organizations gathered for a two-day, code-munity extravaganza celebrating the conclusion of Google Summer of Code with the annual Mentor Summit held at Google in Mountain View, California.
GitHub
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GitHub's position as the repository of choice for open source community projects is today one of dominance, most would argue.
Officially often referred to as a "web-based revision control service" (rather than simply a software code repository), this classification is an obvious nod to the site's inherent level of active community involvement as open projects are continuously developed, refined and augmented.
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So, what’s the problem? Well, that’s simple. It seems that Fox News’ technology department –run by a motley crew of half-witted quick-study-types– failed to explain GitHub, and also disregarded both spelling and punctuation in favor of adopting what I would describe as a rogue journalistic style; a style that exists far beyond the confines of traditional English language rules. It is now with great pleasure that I flog the holy-hell out of the following screen capture in an attempt to make them cry.
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I have an open source script for a specific site (I'm trying not to call anything by name here) that a few other developers and I recently moved to GitHub. We've been joined by several new developers since we moved to the new system, including one very active one in particular. However, this active one has started changing a lot of the project.
First of all, he deleted our versioning system (not like Git, but like that—we called it versions v4.1.16) and said it would be better to simply push the code to the site when we think it's ready. Now there's no centralized place to put release notes, which has become annoying.
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GitHub has become the de facto repository for open source projects. So, we were excited for the opportunity to sit down with GitHub's co-founder and CIO Scott Chacon during the All Things Open Conference in Raleigh, NC.
Python
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One year ago the Puerto Rico Python Interest Group (prPIG) was founded on one purpose; to create a sustainable user community based on software development in Puerto Rico. On February 20, 2014 we will celebrate our first anniversary with an open format meeting with lightning talks from the community.
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Programming languages are crucial to a programmer as they boosts their productivity. Keeping in mind the fact that programmers may not be comfortable with all the coding languages around, we thought of compiling a list of programming languages set to make it big in 2014.
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Python community, friends, fellow developers, we need to talk. On December 3rd, 2008 Python 3.0 was first released. At the time it was widely said that Python 3 adoption was going to be a long process, it was referred to as a five year process. We've just passed the five year mark.
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In an article entitled “Python Displacing R As The Programming Language For Data Science,” MongoDB’s Matt Asay made an argument that has been circulating for some time now. As Python has steadily improved its data science credentials, from Numpy to Pandas, with even R’s dominant ggplot2 charting library having been ported, its viability as a real data science platform improves daily. More than any other language in fact, save perhaps Java, Python is rapidly becoming a lingua franca, with footholds in every technology arena from the desktop to the server.
Git
LLVM
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It looks like there's finally going to be stable point releases of the LLVM compiler infrastructure for pushing out bug-fixes quicker, whether you're using the Clang C/C++ compiler or depending upon LLVM for your GPU driver compiler back-end.
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It's nearly one month late but the LLVM 3.4 compiler infrastructure is now available with the updated Clang C/C++ compiler front-end, the usual LLVM sub-projects, and also some new compiler tools.
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The release of LLVM 3.4 is imminent and with the major compiler infrastructure upgrade comes update to the Clang C/C++ compiler front-end, LLDB debugger, and other LLVM sub-projects. LLVM 3.4 is a very righteous release and in celebration of its forthcoming release, it's back into compiler benchmarking season at Phoronix.
Ruby
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Ruby 2.1 has many improvements including speedup without severe incompatibilities.
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The Ruby project has done a new major release on Christmas for their popular programming language. Ruby offers performance speed-ups but without severe incompatibilities, according to the release announcement.
Misc.
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Regular readers of this column won't be surprised to hear that I love both Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL. Rails has been my primary server-side Web development framework for about eight years, and it has managed to provide solutions for a large number of consulting and personal projects. As for PostgreSQL, I've been using it for about 15 years, and I continue to be amazed by the functionality it has gained in that time. PostgreSQL is no longer just a relational database. It's also a platform supporting the storage and retrieval of many types of data, built on a rock-solid, ACID-compliant, transactional core.
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In the sometimes dark and mysterious world of computers, I see open source programming and community around it as a force of good. Open source sparks and kindles a connection between people that I think is hard to find elsewhere in programming. Working with open source, a programmer builds important and powerful collaboration skills. This is significant because many of us (programmers and self-proclaimed nerds) are rather antisocial. Open source programming helps us cultivate social behaviors like sharing, improved communication, and collaborating towards a common goal.
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So by the mid-1980s, programming in schools was surging...
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The Checkpoint-Restore Tool has reached version 1.0 as part of the CRIU project. Checkpoint/Restore In Userspace allows for users to freeze running applications and checkpoint it to the hard drive as a file and that checkpoint can then be restored to a running process later on. CRIU is different from suspend-and-resume with the Linux kernel in that this is a tool for handling individual programs and it is implemented in user-space.
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The development team behind the Clutter software, a library for creating compelling, portable, dynamic and fast graphical user interfaces (GUI), has announced a few days ago that the second maintenance release of the stable Clutter 1.16 branch is available for download.
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Jim Kukunas of Intel OTC published the set of 13 patches on Monday that include medium and quick deflate strategies, a faster hash function with SSE 4.2 support, PCLMULQDQ-optimized CRC folding, SSE2 hash shifting, and other changes/tuning.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- On the Internet, Nobody Knows Microsoft and Windows Are Becoming Niche Players Until Data is Shown Correctly, Not Microsoft-Sponsored Articles in Microsoft Publishers
- Microsoft controls a lot of publishers and thus it controls information
- All That's Left of MSNBC (Microsoft-NBC) is Microsoft NOW
- When plutocrats and large corporations (even deep in debt) buy all the communication channels
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- (At Least) Second Wave of Mass Layoffs in Microsoft This Month
- This is not the first time this month that Microsoft has mass layoffs
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 20, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, August 20, 2025
- IBM Operatives Inside The Register MS and More Shady Money to Follow
- The Register MS bites every banknote it can sink its teeth into
- Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers and Slopfarms in Google News (e.g. Linux Journal and WebProNews)
- Google plays an active role (if not deliberately then through utter neglect and carelessness) in plagiarism
- Links 20/08/2025: Mass Surveillance Framed as "Artificial Intelligence" (All Old Things Reworded to Misframe Old Computer Issues), Europe Resists Capitulation to US(SR)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Trips and Permacomputing
- Links for the day
- Links 20/08/2025: Oracle Layoffs in India, "AI" Scammers/Profiteers Admit It's a "Bubble", Softbank-Saudi (Oil) Control Tech Companies
- Links for the day
- Social Control Networks Give You False Metrics to 'Addict' You To Them
- Leaving social control media may seem hard, but the same is true for any other addiction
- A Lot of What Happened in Twitter Was Bots, Botfarms, and Troll Farms. It's Even Worse Now (Under X.com) and People Are Noticing.
- Last month we said the same was happening in YouTube
- Microsoft May Have Become - at Least Partially - Like a Boiler Room Scam
- Giving imaginary salaries using imaginary tokens based on imaginary value (with restrictions on conversion to cash)
- In Vietnam, Microsoft's Search Engine "Market Share" Fell to Almost 0%, CocCoc More Than 5 Times Bigger
- Why are people still investing in this company?
- The Register MS, Paid to Promote "AI" Hype, Does "Sez" (Says) Pieces
- every bubble-funded "news" site tries to make it a story about "AI"
- Many Companies Are Run by Liars Who Ride Other People's Money
- Or steal it
- Before CoreAI There Was Builder.ai
- GitHub isn't about "AI" (just a bunch of lies and storytelling for shareholders' patience)
- Microsoft Windows in Croatia at New Lows
- We've been keeping track of this trend for a while
- Using the Best Tool/s for the Job: RSS Feeds and RSS Readers
- Use RSS feeds. Reject those "modern" Web things
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 19, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, August 19, 2025
- Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Neovim, XML, and Alhena 5.2.9
- Links for the day
- Accessibility Isn't Overrated
- Making things simpler typically means better accessibility
- The Register's Slopfest
- Remember when The Register UK (yes, UK) had better standards?
- Latest Version of Windows (Vista 11) is a Failure 4 Years After Its Fake 'Leak'
- Vista 11 became more scarce this month
- Improving Our Archives
- Our old archives are still accessed a lot. Making them better is well worth the investment.
- Things One Learns as a Litigant in Person at the UK High Court
- Don't fear the official manuals
- Slopwatch: Lots of Fake Articles From Fake "Linux" Sites and About "Linux"
- Google says it's committed to "AI" (it means slop, not AI); that seems like an excuse to dodge accountability
- Links 19/08/2025: "Eavesdropping on Phone Conversations Through Vibrations" and Air Canada in Chaos
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Niche Spaces and "AI Pasta Sauce"
- Links for the day
- Links 19/08/2025: "NASA Is Giving Up on Climate Change Science" and "Earth's Continents Are Drying Out at an Unprecedented Rate"
- Links for the day
- Microsoft said “GitHub and its leadership team will continue its mission as part of Microsoft’s CoreAI organisation.” But it's just an empty shell created earlier this year.
- In short, it's not too clear what Microsoft has just done except dumping GitHub - i.e. mostly a Web site that loses a ton of money (it always lost money) - into some mysterious new bucket
- Phil Wyett evidence & Debian Zizian plagiarism, modern slavery tendencies
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- IBM Layoffs in MCC, or Marketing, Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
- IBM and Microsoft inflate their share price by circular financing
- In Many Countries People Move Away From Vista 11
- Vista 11 has been available for download for 4 years already, but adoption has been poor
- Desktops/Laptops Fall to All-Time Lows in the UK, So Why Does British Media Quote a Famous Criminal on "End of the Smartphone Era"?
- mobile usage (for Web access) has never been higher, based on an Irish surveyor, statCounter
- The Groklaw Web Site Has Been Hijacked by Scammers
- Groklaw.net isn't a safe site to access at this time
- The Register MS gets Lazy, Uses Slop
- Unlike 3-D renderings or "Classic" CG, slop images aren't quite original and definitely not fair use
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 18, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, August 18, 2025
- Online Safety Act Does Not Tackle the Worst (and Biggest) Culprits
- if our governments are serious about tackling online harms, then they need to look closely at GAFAM and social control media giants
- Chat Control (1 and 2) in the European Union Sends the Wrong Message
- This is an EU law
- Slopwatch: Google News and Serial Sloppers (Fake Articles About "Linux")
- Calling out the culprits
- Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Digital Legacy and Chat Control
- Links for the day