April 16, 2010

Auto-generate Visual Studio Project Documentation with GhostDoc

Whenever you write classes and functions in Visual Studio, it is a good practice to write XML comments for documentation. For example, before a function starts, you can document which parameters the function expects, briefly describe them, and explain what the function does exactly. Creating such XML comments for an

Mobile Applications Highlighted at APPCON Conference in August

Smartphone companies are beginning to recognize that having the right applications can make the difference between someone choosing to purchase a particular phone or not. This August, those apps will take center stage at a Las Vegas conference aimed at the mobile application industry. APPCON will feature three session tracks

Perl 5 Development Resumes, Version 5.12 Released

Ten years after developers began working on Perl 6, the release still isn’t ready. In the meantime, a group has released some new enhancements to Perl 5. Key changes to version 5.12 include a pluggable keywords feature, which allows extension modules to add new keywords to the language, and a

Apple’s New Developer Agreement Unlevels the iAd Playing Field

Much has already been written about how the new Apple developer agreement bars developers from using Flash, but the agreement also takes a swipe at third-party ad networks. While Apple says that it will continue to allow developers and other advertising companies to serve adds within apps, those apps cannot

MeeGo, Android Phone Platforms Take Stage at Linux Conference

On Wednesday, a Meego spokesperson gave conference attendees a glimpse of the OS’s upcoming roadmap, and Google addressed the Android release schedule and fragmentation questions. “Our goal is to provide the industry with an open platform for various kinds of devices,” said Ari Jaaksi, vice president of Maemo devices and

How to Optimize Oracle Solaris Applications for Intel Platforms

Working together, Oracle and Intel have found a number of ways that Solaris and Xeon processors can benefit from the features of each technology. In this paper, they offer guidance that allows developers to optimize their applications for Solaris on Intel platforms. It covers: Intelligent Performance Automated Energy Efficiency Reliability

Twitter to Add Places, User Streams

On Thursday, Ryan Sarver, head of Twitter’s platform development, gave developers a few hints about the company’s upcoming roadmap. First, he told the crowd at the Chirp conference that Twitter will add “places” to the service and maintain a database of locations that it will share with developers. Second, the

Developers Will Support Multiple Mobile OSs, But Apple Bobs to the Top

In a survey of mobile application developers, market research firm Ovum found that 81 percent of developers either had already started iPhone projects or plan to do so soon. Coming in second and third place were RIM’s BlackBerry OS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS, attracting 74 percent and 66 percent

IBM Launches New Tools for AIX-based Power7 Developers

IBM has announced the release of several new application development tools which it says give the users of IBM Power System servers and blades within AIX environments a modern, Eclipse-based application development environment for the first time ever. The new releases include IBM Rational Developer for Power, IBM Rational Team