Articles by David Bolton
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Developing for Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
Smart speakers are a new class of gadget that uses voice-recognition and machine learning technology to provide access to information, news, and music. As developers may already know, some of the… -
5 Programming Techniques to Know
This might come as a shock to younger programmers, but a long time ago, there were a limited number of programming languages out there, and those programming languages had very defined limits. Ba… -
Should You Use PHP 7?
PHP 7.1 was released at the end of 2016, a year after the unveiling of PHP 7.0. (The programming language, used largely in web development, is over 20 years old—ancient, by tech-world standards.)… -
5 Reasons to Use Visual Studio Code
The days of Microsoft hating Linux are long past; in fact, the company joined the Linux Foundation in November 2016, surprising many open-source advocates. Visual Studio Code, a.k.a., VS Code, is… -
Exploring Assembly Language and WebAssembly
Many decades ago, you programmed computers by flipping switches. It was a slow, error-prone and tedious process. Then came assembly language, which was machine code that humans could actually rea… -
Examining the F# Programming Language
In February 2017, Microsoft released a statement on a corporate blog about its .NET language strategy. As expected, the posting covered C# and VB.NET in great detail—and it also detailed F#, whic… -
Why Develop on Linux?
Everyone has a favorite development platform. With Windows becoming less popular, is Linux getting the breakthrough it needs? The answer, on the surface, is “Yes.” If you haven’t yet experimented… -
4 Tips for Squishing Software Bugs
Although people have developed software for decades, it remains a slow, painstaking, and error-filled process. Despite all that effort, most software is riddled with bugs. (There are exceptions,… -
5 Tested Technologies to Master: Python, HTML, and More
Back in the pre-Internet days, being a programmer was a lot simpler: you had the programming language (of course) and a manual. You edited the source code file with an editor, then ran the compil… -
Breaking Down the Current State of C++ 17
Thirty-three years after C++ first appeared, the latest update to the C++ 17 standard is upon us, and there are two compilers that have implemented it. Since C++ 11, a new release has been schedu…