November 19, 2011

Mobile Developers Aren’t Following the Money

Two recently released reports point out a contradiction in the mobile development industry. On the one hand, a Gartner report shows that users overwhelming favor the Android platform, which now accounts for more than 50 percent of smartphone sales. On the other hand, an Appcelerator developer survey finds that developers

Adobe Flex Handed Over to Apache Foundation

Adobe has announced that it would like to donate its Flex code base to the Apache Software Foundation. Flex is Adobe’s SDK for building enterprise Web applications using Flash technology, and it has been an open source project since 2008. With the move, Adobe seems to be distancing itself even

Box Expands Enterprise Developer Program

Box has launched a new program for developers called the Box Innovation Network. The company hopes the program encourage third-party enterprise application development for its cloud computing platform. In addition the company will invest $2 million with developers who are creating new enterprise apps that run in the Box.net ecosystem.

Intel to Invest $100 Million in App Development

Intel Capital has created a new $100 million fund that will invest in developers creating apps for the Intel AppUp Center. The Intel AppUp Center is Intel’s app store, which provides software for Windows- and Meego-based systems. Already the fund has invested in two companies: Portland-based Urban Airship and Germany-based

Where Should Pair Programmers Sit?

One common agile software development technique — pair programming — requires two developers to sit together at one workstation. Usually, the two developers sit next to each other, side-by-side, so that both can see the same screen. However, a growing number of development shops are experimenting with face-to-face arrangements, where

How to Deal with Difficult Customers

Sometimes allowing developers to contact customers can be like lighting a match around gasoline, but Eric Spiegel argues that the best developers also have good people skills. However, even the developers with the best people skills may falter when they run into customers who are particularly challenging. Here is Spiegel’s

OpenShift Improves Java Support

RedHat has announced that its OpenShift platform as a service (PaaS) now offers support for the “full Java lifecycle for developers.” Specifically, the company is integrating OpenShift with its JBoss Tools and adding support for Maven and Jenkins. The goal is to allow Java developers to do everything “in the

Private PaaS Gains Momentum

At the recent Cloud Expo, a number of vendors were touting tools for building private platform as a service (PaaS) offerings. Private PaaS offers many of the same benefits as other forms of private cloud computing: better security and less risk than public clouds, along with better hardware utilization and

Bloggers Call for ‘Occupy VMware’ Movement

Has the time come for VMware to resurrect its VMware Technology Network (VMTN) Subscription? The company used to offer the program, which was similar to Microsoft’s MSDN program, as a way for developers and testers to get access to VMware’s virtualization and cloud computing tools relatively inexpensively. However, the program