Articles by David Bolton

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  5 Reasons to Use C++ for Android Development

  Although Apple and Google champion specific programming languages for mobile development (Objective-C/Swift for Apple’s iOS, and Java for Google Android), independent developers spend a lot of ti…
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  Five Ways to Simplify Your Code

  Most of us aren't lucky enough to spend our programming lives working on so-called “green-field projects,” i.e., ones that allow you to create the initial code. Since 2000 I've probably spent ten…
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  Try Out Intel DAAL to Process Big Data

  Big Data is the generic term for massive amounts of data generated mainly (but not exclusively) by human activities. The growth in structured and unstructured data has accelerated year after year…
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  Can C# Ever Match C++ for Speed?

  Can C# beat out C++ for speed of execution? If you asked me that question, I’d generally say “No.” But interested in testing the idea out, I recently took a program written in C++, converted it t…
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  Developing in C/C++? Consider Clang

  In order to better understand Clang, a compiler front-end for C, C++, Objective-C++, and Objective-C, you have to start with the LLVM project. LLVM is short for Low-Level Virtual Machine; it’s an…
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  Choosing PostgreSQL Over MySQL, MariaDB

  Check out this recent chart from Google Trends, which shows interest in PostgreSQL largely holding steady over the past ten years, even as MySQL faces fairly significant declines. It’s a good jum…
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  5 New Things In C# 6.0

  Now almost fifteen years old, C# continues to improve with each major release. If you use any version of Visual C# 2015, you have access to C# 6.0 and its many new features. I've chosen to focus…
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  The State of JavaScript: Still Going Strong

  In its twenty-plus-year lifespan, JavaScript has undergone quite the roller-coaster ride. In the mid-90's, it faced several competitors for the title of Most Usable Programming Language; in the e…
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  5 Reasons to Learn Python

  Despite its advanced age (25 years old and counting), Python continues to grow in popularity, having jumped from eighth to fifth spot on the most recent Tiobe Index. Here are five reasons you sho…
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  Creating a (Secure) Shared Password

  Here’s an interesting brainteaser for any developer out there: How do you create a password that’s shared between a group of people, with each individual knowing a small part of it, and only when…