Articles by David Bolton

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  Creating Random Access Text in C#

  Back in April I looked at disk folders as a possible alternative to NoSQL or using a relational DB. My conclusion wasn't encouraging—I was concerned about poor performance, especially on Linux. T…
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  6 Developer Tips for Better Disaster Recovery

  You go through life thinking that it won't happen to you, but someday it will: Your development PC suddenly goes from being state-of-the-art to having the computing power of a brick. How quickly…
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  Is the Time Right to Learn Python 3?

  Python is an excellent and very popular programming language, considered one of the best-designed. It has a simple, clear syntax and runs very fast (faster if you compile it with CPython), but th…
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  4 Python Frameworks You May Not Know About

  The phrase "Python frameworks" usually refers to Web frameworks, collections of software that aid development of websites and services. But there are a few frameworks that aren’t for Web developm…
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  Coding Challenge Wrap-Up: Who Won the Map

  Compared to our previous coding challenges, May's was a modest affair, with just three entries coming in from Rick Matter, Jon Pattinson and Jay Nagel. And, despite opening the entries to include…
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  4 Ways to Debug Application Crashes

  Among the worst things that can happen to an application developer is having their software crash at a customer's location—and having the customer on the phone to them, screaming. So how do you p…
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  Pascal Is Way Underrated

  While it came slightly later to the party, Pascal’s history can perhaps be summed up with the phrase, “Always the Bridesmaid never the Bride.” Developed at the end of the 60s by professor Niklaus…
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  Comparing Django, TurboGears2 and Web2py

  One thing Python isn't short of is packages and Web frameworks. A visit to PyPi, the official package index, shows that frameworks alone have a whopping 12,514 packages available, with Django, Pl…
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  How to Process an Image in Code

  I've recently begun working on a space-themed game that will be set in a galaxy and I've decided to create the background based on a photograph. I generate the background by displaying a 100x100…
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  50 Reasons to Celebrate BASIC

  I started programming in BASIC 38 years ago, in 1976 while I was in my last year of school. I enjoyed it so much that it decided my university degree and career. Back in the mid 70s, if you had a…