October 21, 2011

Microsoft Unveils Preview of Roslyn Compiler-as-a-Service

As promised, Microsoft has released a community technology preview for Roslyn, its new compiler-as-a-service for C# and Visual Basic. Usually, developers can’t see what happens inside a compiler. However, “The Roslyn compilers become services exposed for general consumption, with all of that internal compiler-discovered knowledge made available for developers and

Security Still a Major Cloud Development Concern

At a recent conference, executives from Amazon, IBM and Rackspace discussed cloud security. IBM’s Marc Devine stressed that developers need to focus on security for their cloud applications. “You can’t depend on the fact that, ‘OK, nobody can get behind my firewall,’” he said. “You need to be thinking differently.

Study Compares U.S., Chinese Programmers

Developer social networking site Gild has released the results of a study comparing the skills of U.S. developers to those of Chinese developers. On math and logic tests, Chinese coders scored an average of 20 percent better than their U.S. counterparts. However, U.S. developers scored higher on tests of popular

Apache Releases Cassandra 1.0

The Apache Foundation has officially released version 1.0 of the popular Cassandra open source NoSQL database. “We’re consciously signaling that Cassandra is ready for mere mortals,” said Apache’s Jonathan Ellis. “You don’t have to know as much as you did about the nuts and bolts” to operate the database. In

RIM Rolls Out a New Operating System

At the RIM DevCon, co-CEO Mike Lazarides announced the company’s newest mobile operating system. Called BBX, the OS is very similar to the QNX operating system used on PlayBook tablets, but this OS also works on smartphones and embedded devices. It also boasts better power management, security features and support

VMware Unveils New Devops Tools

VMware is taking the wraps off a new suite of devops tools called “vFabric Application Management.” It includes vFabric AppDirector for deployment of cloud-based apps and vFabric Application Performance Manager for monitoring and managing virtualized and cloud-based apps. The company is also rolling out two related products: An updated version