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Tag: programming languages

  • The NSA Pushes for Adoption of Memory Safe Coding Languages

    The NSA Pushes for Adoption of Memory Safe Coding Languages

    The National Security Agency (NSA) is pushing for the adoption of memory safe coding languages in an effort to improve security.

    Software memory issues constitute one of the biggest sources of vulnerabilities for bad actors to exploit. Older, more established programming languages often lack automated means of managing memory, putting additional burdens on programmers to ensure no memory errors creep in.

    “How a software program manages memory is core to preventing many vulnerabilities and ensuring a program is robust,” writes the NSA in its Cybersecurity Information Sheet. “Exploiting poor or careless memory management can allow a malicious cyber actor to perform nefarious acts, such as crashing the program at will or changing the instructions of the executing program to do whatever the actor desires. Even un-exploitable issues with memory management can result in incorrect program results, degradation of the program’s performance over time, or seemingly random program crashes.”

    The NSA is now pushing for the adoption of languages that offer better memory management features, so-called “memory safe languages.” Memory safe languages include C#, Go, Java®, Ruby™, Rust®, and Swift.

    “Using a memory safe language can help prevent programmers from introducing certain types of memory-related issues,” the NSA adds. “Memory is managed automatically as part of the computer language; it does not rely on the programmer adding code to implement memory protections. The language institutes automatic protections using a combination of compile time and runtime checks. These inherent language features protect the programmer from introducing memory management mistakes unintentionally. Examples of memory safe languages include C#, Go, Java, Ruby, Rust, and Swift.”

    Rust, in particular, has gained publicity and adoption for being a memory safe language. Rust has been making its way into the Linux kernel and was chosen by System76, makers of the popular Pop!_OS Linux distro, to create their new COSMIC desktop environment.

  • Use Of C Programming Languages May Be On The Decline

    The C programming language family is some of the most popular on the planet. Just looking at the TIOBE Index, we see that C, Objective-C, C++ and C# are all in the top five with their rankings not changing in over a year. Those who look deeper into these things predict that C’s time in the spotlight may be coming to an end, however, thanks to some rising stars.

    Andrew Binstock over at Dr. Dobb’s recently penned a blog post that argues the dominance of C may be threatened in the coming years. By using a variety of programming language indexes, including the TIOBE Index, he points out languages meant to replace C and C++ have been on the rise over the last year.

    For starters, D, a language meant to replace C++, climbed to the 18th spot on the TIOBE Index over the last year. It began in the 35th spot in January of 2013. Binstock speculates that D’s rise in the chart may be due to Facebook engineers adopting the language. C++ may also be on the decline thanks to developers moving around from desktop development to mobile where C++ is rarely used.

    As for C, Google’s Go programming language is the biggest threat facing the world’s most popular programming language. According to the TIOBE Index, Go is currently sitting at 36th place, but it’s rank is expected to climb in 2014. Binstock says that C will also face threats from Mozilla’s Rust and Nimrod in 2014, but he doesn’t expect its popularity to wane too much.

    So, what about Objective-C and C#? For Objective-C, Binstock expects it to remain popular due to Apple requiring iOS developers to use it. For C#, he feels that it could become more popular among .NET developers in the coming year.

    Image via TIOBE

  • PHP Programmers Unite To Make The Orange ElePHPant A Reality

    Android has bugdroid. Linux has Tux the penguin. Both have been immortalized in plush toys, action figures and even remote controlled robots. What about PHP’s lovable ElePHPant though? Where’s the love for him? Well, somebody has already made a blue, pink and red ElePHPant, but one man wants to add one more color.

    Eli White, co-owner of php[architect], recently took to Kickstarter to fund the creation of an orange ElePHPant. Why orange? The magazine’s signature color is orange and wants to celebrate its 11 years of publication with an orange colored ElePHPant.

    If you think demand for an orange ElePHPant wouldn’t be that high, you’d be wrong. The Kickstarter campaign only asked for $1,000, but has already received almost $18,000 in pledges since it started on Thursday. Most of those backers – 200 of them – have pledged $20 to receive a single small ElePHPant.

    Exclusive to Kickstarter, php{architect] is also producing large ElePHPants for $100 each. Almost 40 backers have already pledged $100 or more to get a large ElePHPant alongside a number of small ElePHPants. The campaign has even attracted 14 backers who have pledged $250 to get one large ElePHPant and ten small ones. It’s the kind of dedication that only programming language mascots can inspire.

    If you want a blue elePHPant, you can get one here. They cost €10 for a small and €85 for a large.

    Image via Eli White/Kickstarter

  • Java, Objective-C Still Popular Thanks To Mobile Development

    Every month, TIOBE Software releases an index of the most popular programming languages based upon a variety of factors. Most months, the popularity of these languages don’t change much thanks to developers sticking to what they know. As we head into 2014, that still remains to be the case.

    The first TIOBE Index report of 2014 has gone live and it confirms what you may have expected all along – the C programming language family is still going strong. In the first month report, C, Objective-C, C++ and C# are all in the top five. The only non-C programming language in the top five is Java thanks to Android development.

    Here are the top 20 programming languages according to TIOBE:

    Java, Objective-C Still Popular Thanks To Mobile Development

    While much of the top five list is all about mobile development, the conversation shifts to Web development as you move down the list. TIOBE notes that there’s not much changing on that front despite the big push to get HTML5 into more Web pages. The only real evidence of that push is JavScript jumping from 10th place to ninth place in a year.

    As for Transact-SQL moving 12 spots to the number 10 spot, TIOBE says this is mostly due to not much happening in 2013. In fact, Transact-SQL is only used in Microsoft’s SQLServer which is losing popularity among developers. All of this just means that there’s been no major shakeups in the programming languages used by developers around the world.

    Image via TIOBE

  • JavaScript Is Encroaching On The C Family’s Turf

    The C family of languages is incredibly popular if you go by the TIOBE Programming Community Index. That has not changed going into June 2013, but one language is creeping up fast.

    TIOBE Software reports that JavaScript has made its way back into the top 10 programming languages for June. It says that the boost in JavaScript use is thanks to novel applications like node.js and its use in making HTML5 games.

    The C family in the top 10 – C, Objective-C, C++ and C# – probably don’t have to worry though as TIOBE says JavaScript has some challenges ahead of it before it becomes broadly adopted:

    The JavaScript language is generally regarded as a programming language in which it is easy to make mistakes. It is interpreted, so most errors show up only at run-time. That’s why Google designed Dart (currently at position 80) as JavaScript’s successor. But also other programming languages were designed to generate JavaScript code instead of writing it manually.

    In other news, Objective-C is climbing its way back up the Community Index. In April, growth had stalled and it slipped behind C++ to rank 4. Now it’s back on top of C++. It’s most likely due to an increase in iOS development. It will likely only increase in the coming months as well with iOS 7 on the horizon.

    The only other change among the C family is that C# has fallen to sixth place after being dethroned by PHP. It’s only a regular fluctuation though, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it back up next month.

    Here’s the full list of the top 20 programming languages as determined by the TIOBE Programming Community Index:

    JavaScript C Family

  • Objective-C’s Growth In Popularity Has Stalled

    Traditional development trends has ensured that the C and C++ programming languages remain popular even decades after their creation. Despite being created in the same year as C++, Objective-C was never as popular. That all changed with the advent of the iPhone, but things are starting to slow down.

    The TIOBE Programming Community Index, an index that charts the popularity of programming languages, has found that Objective-C’s popularity has stopped growing after its meteoric rise from rank 42 in 2008 to rank 4 in 2012.

    Now, this doesn’t mean that the popularity of Objective-C will start to dramatically decrease. The popularity of iOS devices and Apple’s insistence that Objective-C be the only language used in iOS development ensures that the language will have a long life ahead of it.

    We can always make a few assumptions based on these findings though. One is that iOS development isn’t growing as fast as it used to. Developers building apps for iOS will continue to do so, but this stall in growth seems to indicate that new developers are not flocking to the platform.

    It could all change at a moment’s notice, however, especially if Apple does release a cheaper iPhone for emerging markets this year. The development communities in China, India and elsewhere could help catapult Objective-C to even greater heights as these teams scramble to get apps on the Apple App Store.

    As for the other languages, the top eight languages didn’t see a rise or decline in popularity compared to last year. C remains the most popular with Java and C++ taking up second and third place respectively. As you already read, Objective-C is at the number four spot, and C# rounds out the top five.

    Here’s the full chart showing the top 20 programming languages this month:

    Objective-C's Growth In Popularity Has Stalled

    You can check out the rest of the stats including a list of the top 50 programming languages in the world over at the TIOBE Programming Community Index page.

  • PHP Upgraded To Version 5.4.14, PCRE Library Merged

    Those who use PHP are in for a treat this month as the development team has released updates for both the current and old versions, 5.4 and 5.3 respectively, of the scripting language. There’s nothing major, of course, but there are a number of bug fixes that developers should be aware of.

    Starting with PHP 5.4, the latest update brings it up to version 5.4.14. With this update, the team has fixed more than 10 bugs. Here’s the full changelog:

    Core:

  • Fixed bug #64529 (Ran out of opcode space).
  • Fixed bug #64515 (Memoryleak when using the same variablename two times in function declaration).
  • Fixed bug #64432 (more empty delimiter warning in strX methods).
  • Fixed bug #64417 (ArrayAccess::&offsetGet() in a trait causes fatal error).
  • Fixed bug #64370 (microtime(true) less than $_SERVER[‘REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT’]).
  • Fixed bug #64239 (Debug backtrace changed behavior since 5.4.10 or 5.4.11).
  • Fixed bug #63976 (Parent class incorrectly using child constant in class property).
  • Fixed bug #63914 (zend_do_fcall_common_helper_SPEC does not handle exceptions properly).
  • Fixed bug #62343 (Show class_alias In get_declared_classes()).

    • PCRE:

  • Merged PCRE 8.32.

    • SNMP:

  • Fixed bug #61981 (OO API, walk: $suffix_as_key is not working correctly).

    • Zip:

  • Fixed bug #64452 (Zip crash intermittently). (Anatol)

    • Those who are still on version 5.3, the team has released a smaller update (version 5.3.24) with a number of bug fixes. It also includes the same PCRE library merge that was included in the latest version of PHP 5.4, as well as the same Zip crash bug.

    Core:

  • Fixed bug #64370 (microtime(true) less than $_SERVER[‘REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT’]).
  • Fixed bug #63914 (zend_do_fcall_common_helper_SPEC does not handle exceptions properly).
  • Fixed bug #62343 (Show class_alias In get_declared_classes()).

    • PCRE:

  • Merged PCRE 8.32.

    • mysqlnd:

  • Fixed bug #63530 (mysqlnd_stmt::bind_one_parameter crashes, uses wrong alloc for stmt->param_bind).

    • DateTime:

  • Fixed bug #62852 (Unserialize Invalid Date causes crash).

    • Zip:

  • Fixed bug #64452 (Zip crash intermittently).

    • If you want to the source code for either version 5.4.14 or 5.3.24, you can grab it here. If you need PHP for Windows, you can grab the latest versions here.

  • Mozilla, Samsung Working Together On New Web Browser Engine

    Mozilla, Samsung Working Together On New Web Browser Engine

    The modern Web browser is most likely powered by one of three engines – WebKit, Trident or Gecko. The latter is currently developed by Mozilla, and is used in its popular Firefox Web browser. One Web browser engine is apparently not enough for the non-profit, though, as it’s now working on another.

    Mozilla and Samsung jointly announced today that they have begun work on an advanced Web browser engine called Servo. The engine will be built in Rust, a new programming language in development at Mozilla that the non-profit hopes will “fill many of the same niches that C++ has over the past decades.”

    A new Web browser engine is already pretty big news, but that’s only half of the story. Mozilla and Samsung are also bringing Rust and Servo to Android and ARM devices. It seems its both parties’ intention to make a next generation Web browser engine for mobile devices that “can fully utilize the performance of tomorrow’s massively parallel hardware to enable new and richer experiences on the Web.”

    At the moment, there isn’t much to show for Servo, but Mozilla says it’s now putting more resources into the project to prove that it can “build a fast Web browser with pervasive parallelism, and in a safe, fun language.” At the same time, the non-profit will also be working on completing the first major revision of the Rust language.

    Like most Mozilla projects, the non-profit is inviting the community to help them develop Rust and Servo. If you would like nothing more to poke and prod untested code, you can grab the source code for Rust and Servo at their respective GitHub repositories.

  • Learn To Use Dart With Google Web Toolkit

    Dart, Google’s own programming language for the Web, has a number of fans and proponents that elevate it beyond a simple hobbyist language. Now the company is supporting its users with frequent tutorials on how to get the most out of Dart.

    The newest video on Dart will teach programmers how to use Dart with Google Web Toolkit. Here’s what you can expect:

    In this episode of Dartisans, I’m going to show you a variety of ways to use Dart with Google Web Toolkit. I know that there are a lot of GWT developers out there who would like to give Dart a shot, but they aren’t sure how because they already have a large, successful app that’s written in GWT. I’m going to show you ways to integrate Dart into your existing GWT application without having to rewrite it from scratch.

    To do this, I’ve built a sample application that uses both GWT and Dart. I’ll show you how to setup a development environment so that you can work with both technologies. Then, I’ll show you a variety of ways in which you can get GWT and Dart to interoperate.

  • Last.fm Open Sources Moost, A C++ Library

    Last.fm Open Sources Moost, A C++ Library

    Last.fm may be well known for its Internet radio services, but the company is also breaking into the open source scene. It’s latest release is sure to pleas all the C++ coders out there.

    Last.fm’s Marcus Holland-Moritz announced today that moost, it’s C++ library is now available to all under an open source license. He says that moost has been in development by Last.fm’s MIR team over the past five years, and contains all the tools and utilities they use on the site. It’s based on the boost C++ libraries.

    Moost contains a number of features that programmers will find handy. Here’s some of the features you can expect when using it:

    There are a lot of different things in moost. Some are really simple, yet very helpful in day-to-day work, like the which template that allows you to use pairs (and containers storing pairs) more easily with standard algorithms; or stringify, a function template that turns complex objects into strings. Other parts are slightly more sophisticated: for example, moost contains the framework that is shared by all our backend services, and that allows you to write a daemonisable service with logging, a set of standard options and even a service shell that multiple users can connect to when the service is running, all in a few lines of code.

    As our backend services are inherently multi-threaded, there’s also a bit of threading support in moost. For example, the safe_shared_ptr template is immensely useful for resources that are shared between threads and need to be updated atomically.

    Moritz says that moost also features memory wrapped dataset classes and an abstraction for loading shared objects. Both of which will make it easier to manage resources while building out large datasets.

    You can check out moost for yourself now over at GitHub. Moritz encourages any interested developers to contribute to the project if they have the time.

  • Google Developers Talk About The Future Of Dart

    In 2011, Google introduced the Dart programming language as an alternative to JavaScript. It’s been a little over a year now since it launched. It’s come a long way since then, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.

    In today’s Google Developers’ Office Hours, the Dart team talks about the latest developments in the programming language. They also address what the next year and beyond will hold for Dart. If you are a fan of Dart or want to know more about Google’s foray into programming languages, you’ll want to check it out:

    As an added bonus, here’s a video on how to enable continuous integration with Drone.io using Dart:

  • C++ Is Powering The Future Of Robots And Dance

    C++ Is Powering The Future Of Robots And Dance

    Developers and programmers use a variety of programming languages to get things done. C++ is one of the more complicated languages to learn, but its use can lead to some pretty amazing applications. For instance, the language is being used to power the dancing moves of one of the world’s most advanced robots- the CHARLI.

    CHARLI was built by a team of researchers at Virginia Tech who wanted to develop “a research platform to study bipedal walking and autonomous behaviors for humanoid robots.” Such a task requires top of the line mechanical engineering as well as the programming required to make it all work.

    For fun, the researchers decided to program some dance moves for CHARLI-2. Perhaps riding on the song’s success, they chose PSY’s Korean hit Gangnam Style. CHARLI-2’s performance isn’t an exact replication, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

    For those interested in programming for robotics, there are a number of open source projects currently available. One of the more popular is OpenRAVE which focuses on “motion planning algorithms in real-world robotics applications.” It’s mostly used for arm movements, but you can still have a crazy dance party with just a robot’s arms.

    It may not help your robot dance, but here’s some other open source C++ development platforms for robotics – Urbi and Orocos.

    [h/t: Geek.com]

  • TypeScript Is Microsoft’s Attempt At Making JavaScript Application Development Easier

    JavaScript has been one of the core foundations of HTML5 since the beginning. Microsoft has been aggressively pushing HTML5 in Internet Explorer 10. So what happens when you take Microsoft’s desire to create proprietary programming languages and their insistence on HTML5? You get TypeScript, the company’s own version of JavaScript.

    Microsoft announced that TypeScript is now available for developers and programmers to play around with. What’s the difference between TypeScript and JavaScript? Surprisingly, not a lot. Microsoft says that they created TypeScript as a way to help JavaScript scale to larger, more media rich HTML5 projects.

    Some may be concerned that Microsoft is trying to replace JavaScript with TypeScript. That couldn’t be further from the truth. TypeScript is just an extension of JavaScript, and both languages can co-exist in your code. In fact, Microsoft claims that TypeScript is JavaScript and vice versa.

    In essence, Microsoft is pushing TypeScript as a complement to traditional JavaScript development. It’s only meant to help developers create more media rich HTML5 applications. It only makes sense as Microsoft is aggressively pursuing HTML5 development in Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 8. The new language could help developers push the limits of HTML5.

    Developers may be initially wary of another Microsoft-developed programming language, but Microsoft appears to have only the best intentions in mind with TypeScript. It’s completely open source and free to use. It compiles with JavaScript, and complements any preexisting code.

    Interested developers can download an early preview of TypeScript here. You can also test it out for yourself in the TypeScript online playground. Finally, you can get the source code over at CodePlex.

    For those who need a more visual explanation, Microsoft has also put together a video walkthrough of all the new features in TypeScript:

  • JavaScript Leads The Pack As Most Popular Programming Language

    What’s your favorite programming language? JavaScript? C++? Or are you aligned with the Python camp? Either way, you have a favorite language that you just prefer working in. It can have a big effect on the overall development ecosystem as more popular languages get more support from larger players like Google and Facebook. That’s why it’s super important to track programming language popularity over time.

    RedMonk is one of the many analysis firms that tracks the popularity of programming languages. They look at the popularity of languages on GitHub and StackOverflow. They found that language popularity tends to correlate between the two. That still seems to be the case with both sources returning JavaScript as the victor.

    JavaScript Most Popular Programming Language

    For added clarification, here’s the top 20 programming languages as determined by RedMonk:

    1. JavaScript
    2. Java
    3. PHP
    4. Python
    5. Ruby
    6. C#
    7. C++
    8. C
    9. Objective-C
    10. Shell
    11. Perl
    12. Scala
    13. Haskell
    14. ASP
    15. Assembly
    16. ActionScript
    17. R
    18. Visual Basic
    19. CoffeeScript
    20. Groovy

    The guys at RedMonk go on to say that the top languages rarely change that much. It’s far more interesting to look at the turmoil happening in the lower rankings in the top 20. Over the past two years, many languages have dropped multiple ranks as other languages like Visual Basic 5 and ASP come into favor.

    For comparison, the TIOBE Index is listing C as the most popular programming language in use at the moment. TIOBE bases their rankings off of the number of skilled engineers, courses and third party vendors that cater to a specific language.

    Both rankings are a good idea of how the popularity of programming languages are evolving. RedMonk’s rankings are far more interesting, however, because they look at the popularity on GitHub. A lot of the guys on there are hobbyist coders that may not influence the strict guidelines that determine the TIOBE Index.

  • Objective-C Overtakes C++ In July Thanks To Apple

    One of the more interesting things to look at each month is the TIOBE Index. It collects all the programming languages and lists the top 20 based on “skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors.” C and Java are usually battling for the top, but the third position fro July is definitely interesting.

    The TIOBE Index has found that Objective-C has overtaken C++ in popularity. Objective-C was in sixth place in July of 2011 and has jumped to third this month. Apple can take most of the credit for the jump in Objective-C popularity.

    As The Inquisitr explains, C++ and Objective-C were developed in the same year. Programmers flocked to C++, however, because it’s better in high-performance systems whereas Objective-C is better for light-weight systems. It was’t until 1988 when Steve Jobs ordered Objective-C to be used on the NeXTSTEP OS, which eventually led to OS X, that the language began to gain notoriety.

    From there, Objective-C really took off when the iPhone launched. Apps built for the iPhone rely heavily on the Objective-C language and it shows. Moving three spaces up and overtaking C++ in just a year is a pretty impressive feat. As more people begin to develop for iOS, we should start to see Objective-C rise even more. Granted, it’s probably won’t overtake Java or C for a while as both of those languages are pretty engrained into the overall programming ecosystem.

    Here’s the top 20 programming languages for July. There might be a few more surprises beyond Objective-C’s rise to fame such as Visual Basic .NET’s massive jump from 25th to 15th place.

    Objective-C Overtakes C++ In July Thanks To Apple

  • Google Shows Developers How To Be On Target With Dart

    Google’s open source programming language, Dart, was one of the few things that didn’t get a lot of love from Google’s main keynotes. It was to be expected as Dart isn’t exactly the most exciting of subjects for the press. The press is now gone though and developers are taking over. Time for some Dart action.

    Google has been pushing building apps for the open Web during year’s Google I/O conference. The newly added features to Apps Script and Drive will hopefully kick start an entirely new generation of apps built for the Web. If you’re going to start building those apps, you’re going to want to program with a language built for those apps. For what it’s worth, Google thinks Dart is that language.

    The Google Dart team presented a few apps at I/O that showed off the power of Dart. What advantages does Dart provide to developers? Quite a few with fast speeds, great visuals and offline apps being a few of the advantages.

    The future of the Web is in your hands and Google wants you to use Dart as the main power source behind it. With this kind of instruction, it’s at least going to be easy.

  • C Is The Most Popular Programming Language In April

    Have you heard of the TIOBE Programming Community Index? It’s a table that lists the ratings of programming languages and tracks their status throughout the developer ecosystem. It’s a good indicator of where a language stands in terms of its general use. April has a few surprises though.

    It was found that Java is a downward trend from it’s top spot in the developer world. It would appear that C is now the most popular programming language in the world at a rating of 17.555 percent. It’s not all that bad for Java though since it’s rating for April is at 17.026 percent. TIOBE Software says that Java will never diminish too badly due to the Android development scene.

    How does TIOBE find these results? Here’s how the Web site puts it:

    The TIOBE Programming Community index is an indicator of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors. The popular search engines Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu are used to calculate the ratings. Observe that the TIOBE index is not about the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written.

    What’s interesting is that C-based languages make up the majority of the top five list with C++ coming in at number three with a rating of 8.896 percent, Objective-C at number four with 8.236 percent and C# at number 5 with 7.348 percent. Objective-C has seen the largest climb with its position at number eight this time last year.

    While Java may be doing down, JavaScript is working it’s way up rather slowly. It was at number 10 this time last year, but now it’s at number nine.

    TIOBE hopes that their list will help developers make the proper choice when it comes to building new applications. Choosing a more popular language will ensure maximum compatibility, but there are applications being made now that should make language conversion easier for those who want to program applications in multiple languages.

    Here’s the top 20 languages for the month of April according to the TIOBE Index:

    C Most Popular Programming Language In April

    [h/t: Slashdot]

  • Google Announces The Global Dart Hackathon

    Hackathons are the in thing these days. From the competitive scene like Google’s Code Jam (which our very own Michael Marr liveblogged this year) to the more traditional like Google’s TV hackathon. Google, not content with just one, two or even three Hackathons, have announced another global hackathon.

    We shared a video last week of Seth Ladd talking up Google’s Dart programming language. It’s still relatively new to the world, but Google thinks it can change the way we program for the web. To that end, Google needs bright minds to come together and hack the ever living crap out of it.

    That being said, this is the first ever Dart hackathon and Google is taking it to a global level. Ladd says its a collaboration between the Dart team and the developer community. The focus is on building “modern client and server side web apps and libraries.”

    The current locations for hackathons around the globe are as follows:

    North America:
    Silicon Valley, California, USA
    South America:
    São Paulo, Brazil
    Europe and Middle East:
    London, England
    Prague, Czech Republic
    Tel Aviv, Israel
    Asia:
    Bacolod City, Philippines
    Chandigarh, India
    Goa, India
    Karnataka, India
    Manipal, India
    New Delhi, India
    Seoul, Korea
    Tokyo, Japan

    Ladd reiterates that Dart is still in preview and isn’t ready for mass consumption. To counter that though, he says that’s what makes these kind of hackathons fun and I couldn’t agree more. Times, dates and registrations can all be found at the Dart Hackathon Web site. You can also get an early look at the Dart SDK to prepare yourself for the Hackathon.

  • The Dart Platform: An Introduction To Web Development

    There are many languages and platforms when it comes to developing apps for the Web, mobile and servers. One of the languages vying for your attention is Google’s Dart Web development language.

    Seth Ladd, a developer advocate of Dart and Chrome, gave a talk on the Dart platform this week. In his talk, he introduces what Dart is and why developers should care about the platform. The main philosophy of Dart is to “help app developers write complex, high performance client apps for the modern web.”

    Ladd then goes into a review of the new language features for Dart like “static types and isolates.” He also demos the editor that developers will use when making applications for Dart.

    Dart is still relatively new and will have many updates made to it over the next few years. This video is just meant to introduce people to the platform to drive up notoriety and interest. The video is very interesting and worth checking out even if you can’t watch the entire hour.

    While Dart might not be the future of the Web, it’s still nice to have more options when it comes to developing for the Web. A wide range of options leads to more innovation in the development and creation of apps which is only a good thing for the end user.

    Check out the hour-long video below and tell us what you think:

  • Google’s Go Project Gets Stable Release

    Google’s Go Project Gets Stable Release

    Google has been toiling away on the Go Project since 2009. Besides having one of the most adorable mascots ever – Tux had better step up his game – Go is the company’s open source programming language. After three years and over 200 people contributing to the project, the Go Project has reached a major milestone.

    Andrew Gerrand of the Go Team, not to be confused with the other Go Team, Google+Open+Source+Blog%29″>updated us today on the status of the Go Project. It has reached a stable enough point now to be considered usable by the masses and thus has earned the moniker “Go Version 1” or just “Go 1” for short.

    Go promises a few things as a programming language. The first and most important is that programs built in Go 1 will continue to work even as Go continues to evolve as a language. This means that even when Go 1 becomes Go 1.3, programs built in Go 1 should still work in the new runtime.

    For those who were using Go on the Google App Engine, Go 1 is now the official Go runtime on the platform. Go 1 is also available in binary distributions including Linux, FreeBSD, Mas OSX and Windows.

    If you have no idea what Go is, head on over to the official Go site and check out Go for yourself. They have an interactive demo set up on the front page that allows you to write simple code in Go showing off its unicode support and other functions.