February 17, 2011

Commercial Text Editors Die a Slow Death

Twenty years ago, text editors were an indispensable programming tool, while IDEs were slow and clunky. Today, improvements in hardware have made IDEs much faster, and as a result, more developers choose to use them instead of text editors. Many once-popular commercial text editors, including BRIEF, Polytron, KEDIT, Multi-Edit and

Java Is Not Dead Yet

RedMonk’s Stephen O’Grady is challenging other analysts — including those from Forrester — who say that Java is dying. He says that those who make this claim are talking to IT decision makers, but not to “practitioners,” a.k.a. developers. O’Grady believes that the use of Java is declining because developers

Google Updates Developer Tools, App Engine SDK

Google has updated its Google Web Toolkit (GWT) and Google Plugin for Eclipse (GPE), and added new APIs for Google App Engine. The GWT software development kit now supports HTML5 and includes several new features that make it easier to create Web apps. In addition, Google has integrated GPE with

Google Proposes One-Pass Micropayment System to Publishers

One day after Apple introduced a subscription payment system for iOS, Google has responded with subscription plan of its own. And while Apple wants 30 percent of developer or publisher revenues, Google will reportedly take only 10 percent. In addition, while Apple’s service only works for native iOS apps, Google’s

Apple Rolls Out Long-Awaited/Feared Subscription Plan

Apple has finally worked out the kinks in its subscription payment service. Now, magazines and other apps that offer fresh content on a regular basis can charge receive recurring payments through iTunes. The catch is that iOS developers must sell the subscriptions through iTunes, with Apple taking a 30 percent

Software Industry Drives Revenues with License Audits

A new Ernst & Young report finds that just 20 percent of IT departments have formal software asset management (SAM) programs in place. By contrast, among suppliers, 63 percent said they use SAM in order to generate more revenue, and 50 percent said they did so in order to protect

Adobe Says Air and Flash Are Winning Over Developers

Despite being continually snubbed by Apple, Adobe says developers and end users are using its technology. To prove the point, the company released a host of statistics, including the following: 84 million devices are able to run Adobe Air applications today. By the end of 2011, more than 200 million

Mobile Operators Launch Global Wholesale App Store

One year ago, a group of mobile network operators and others announced the formation of the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), an organization dedicated to creating a global wholesale app store. Now, the WAC has announced that its app store is operational. Unlike most app stores, the WAC store doesn’t sell

What Makes a Smart Developer? (Is it Google?)

Managers who are interviewing candidates for developer jobs often ask specific, direct questions about syntax, memory management or programming challenges. But this might not be the best approach, because anyone can look up these things with a simple Google search. Instead, interviewers should focus on finding out whether candidates have