It is that age old debate... Mac vs PC! What is the most optimal operating system for development, what are the ups and downs of each, and what are our favorite tools to keep us productive regardless of where we are working? Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface Proudly recorded on Zencastr...
iOS 11 is packed full of awesome with machine learning, augmented reality, and a full file system, but who cares about that? Let's talk about our new favorite feature: Drag & Drop! This week we dive into why drag and drop matters, how it is implemented, and what you will get for free out of the box when you simply recompile your app! We also dive into several other iOS 11 goodies. Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adven...
It has been said that if a feature has not been documented, than it might as well not exist. It could not be more true from our findings and this week we finally take a look at all things documentation! We also get to your listener feedback and debate the future of progressive web apps, async/await, and a whole lot more. In addition to all of this AWESOME it has been officially been 1 full year of Merge Conflict! Thank you so much to our amazing listeners! <3 Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog ,...
Will Frank ever update his apps in the app store? When, how, and what should go into that super important app update that your users are expecting? We investigate what has changed for us and the app stores in the last year. How about open source projects and libraries? Do these fall into the same criteria of an "app release"? We also take a look at how Apple, Google, and awesome CI services have helped us be more successful. Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub...
.NET on Linux? Yes we can with .NET Core! This week we tackle what it is like to develop for the server and the web using the new fancy Core tooling with .NET Core and ASP.NET Core. Frank stress tests .NET on Linux servers with the ultimate button clicking experience and James attempts to figure out how the internet and ASP.NET MVC works all from VS for Mac! Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface Proudly recorded o...
It is that time again, lightning talks! We cover 6 different topics in under 30 minutes! This week we talk coding standards, documentation, E3, app reviews, and so much more! Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface Proudly recorded on Zencastr...
We are back to talk architecture with MVVM, that is right Model-View-ViewModel, and all of the awesome stuff that comes along for the ride with the fantastic frameworks available. Before we talk about those frameworks, we go through why we love MVVM itself, what it is, how to use it, and why it is not just data binding. We take a look at popular frameworks and how to use MVVM with no framework at all. So sit back and get ready for architecture! Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twi...
WWDC has come to a close and we are here to fill you in all the news from the largest Apple Developer event of the year. From iOS 11 and amazing new machine learning APIs, to brand new Mac hardware to start development on, to yes renaming in Xcode 9, we break down each and every announcement that you need to know about. Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface Proudly recorded on Zencastr...
To create design time data or not to create design time data, that is the question? Or is it better to mock out all of your interfaces or say heck let's code straight to the API end points? When you are developing a large project and desire the "blendability", what approach is best to take, and what works well with design time tools like Blend and the Xamarin Live Player? We discuss all this and more on this week's episode. Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub ...
C# 7 is here! The most functional version of C# to date with pattern matching, tuples, local functions, and so much more! This week we break down every single new feature and let you know what we love and what we think is just okay. Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface Proudly recorded on Zencastr...
The dream of continuous deployment and debugging your Android and iOS apps from Visual Studio with nothing more than a device is now a reality. We talk shop on what the Xamarin Live Player is and how we built it. Frank goes into the inner workings of his genius mind and the bits and bytes of how the Live Player player works. James on the other hand got to work on the app and IDE integrations with the Xamarin team and discusses the intricate parts of running an app inside of an app. Follow Us Fra...
The past few days at Microsoft Build 2017 have been filled with wonderful news for .NET and Xamarin developers. On this weeks pod we have a full recap of the event, announcements, and a few predictions. Additionally, we deep dive into a few stand out topics such as XAML Standard, .NET Standard 2.0, the Xamarin Live Player, and of course Fluent Design. Sit back and relax for a Build 2017 packed show. Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethyst Seer - C...
This week we tackle the TPL, that is right, the Task Parallel Library. We dive into one of our favorite features of C# and .NET, async/await programming. We take a walk down memory lane to talk about thread pools, completion handlers, locks, and just about everything else we had to do for parallel programming. Sit back, relax, and enjoy some TPL! Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface Proudly recorded on Zencastr...
DevOps, that is right Developer Operations, all the things that you don't want to do manually, so you automate them! This week we talk about build, test, and deploy for all of your mobile applications and .NET libraries. As solo developers it all seemed like a pipe dream to have everything magically happen when we committed code to GitHub, but the services available streamline the entire process. Frank and James walk through not only their solo DevOps solutions, but what it means when you start ...
It's everyone's favorite topic... TESTING! That's right we tackle the world of unit testing, code coverage, user interface testing, acceptance testing, and so much more. Even though Frank and James are solo developers and there may not always be time to write a full suite of unit tests, that doesn't mean they don't dream of 100% code coverage. What does that even mean though? Does that mean your app will be flawless? Where do you get started and what should be your goals? We discuss on this week...
Is 3D printing poised to change how we prototype and build parts and full machines or is it just another toy? Both Frank and James have been long time 3D printing advocates and with prices coming down to consumer friendly levels it seems like it is a great time to jump in. However, as James just recently experienced it may still be early days filled with tons of headaches and thrown away print failures. We discuss the past, present, and future of 3D printing on this week's Merge Conflict. Follow...
It's that time again... Lightning Talks!!! Every 10th episode here on Merge Conflict we take a look at our list of topics and what our listeners have submitted and pick six different topics that each get five minutes of coverage. This round we take a look at the ideal developer setup, how to manage tricky certificates, properly handling settings in applications, publishing an app in a week, effective app store advertising, and finally how to properly ask for that five star review. Sit back and g...
It's time to tune our developer skills by leveraging some amazing coding challenges that teach us answers to questions like exactly what are linked lists again? We share the best resources we know on coding questions and share our experiences from past interviews of what you should really be studying. It isn't just code as we discuss the crazy left field questions that you may be asked during your next interview. Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Ame...
It is finally time for .NET truly to be EVERYWHERE! This week we investigate the dream of .NET Standard libraries, one library that can be shared in any .NET application. We take a look at the concept, implementation, tooling, and mix in our analysis of the pros and cons of making the big switch to .NET Standard libraries. Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface...
It's time to go down the rabbit hole of networking to investigate the ins and outs of Transport Layer Security (TLS) and how it impacts your apps. James walks Frank through his latest issues with APIs requiring TLS 1.2+ and how he was able to debug the situation at 4:30am to get a new release of his app. We attempt to make networking fun as we dive through HTTP Headers and general connectivity tips and tricks. Follow Us Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethy...
When and how should you drop support for a specific device or operating system? We talk about the market today and how we handle it in our own apps. We also dive into specifics around what types of hardware architecture to support and how that impacts your application. Finally, it is much more than just mobile applications, as the same has to be considered for the desktop, and Frank speaks from personal experience. Links & Show Notes Android Dashboard Project Centennial Merge Conflict Sticke...
It's time to talk code security when developing applications to try to stop people from stealing our precious code and apps. We discuss the different methods we have used to attempt to obfuscate our code and the tools we use to peek into our own code. When it comes to security, it is more than just the executable we ship as we have to be aware of everything happening on the device such as in app purchases, certificates, web requests, and a bunch of other things. We discuss all this and more on t...
It is time to tackle the other desktop and brush up on our struts and springs as when investigate the ins and outs of macOS. If you know iOS development your are primed to make your next great desktop macOS application, it is way easier than you think! Frank walks us through how he got started, what you need, and how Xamarin.Forms is about to change the desktop game. Links & Show Notes Sparkle Updater SkiFree AppKit Steve Jobs The Lost Interview Xamarin.Forms Nightly Builds Frank: Twitter , ...
Is your data ready for a complete disaster? We discuss why you should care about backing up your data and how to easily get started. No matter if it is just a few photos, your entire business documentation, or the most important source code in the world you have to have ways of backing up and restoring data no matter where you are in the world. Frank and James break down some horror stories from their personal lives and how they are now prepping for disaster. Links & Show Notes BackBlaze Tim...
Everyone should build their own computer! This week we cover the ins and outs of building your own "Super" computer from scratch. We discuss where we got started building our own computers and what keeps us inspired to keep building them after all these years. All of this while Frank tries to explain to James what "Super" computer really means. Links & Show Notes James' "Super" Computer (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dANsMa7XGh_osJJBpmVlX9LyguZBqATWYJBSu1CISjY/edit?usp=sharing) James' ...
Cross-platform user interface? Pipe dream or reality? Frank and James debate the Pros and Cons of Xamarin.Forms, an open source cross-platform user interface library from Xamarin. We discuss performance, look and feel, alternatives, and if we really should be using all those fancy data bindings on this week's show. Links & Show Notes Xamarin.Forms (http://xamarin.com/forms) Xamarin.Forms Roadmap (https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/85747/xamarin-forms-feature-roadmap/p1) Free Xamarin.Forms...
It's lightning talks week here on Merge Conflict. We cover six topics in under thirty minutes! We take a look at topics that have been on our minds for a while and from our listeners. On this week's lightning talks episode we take a look at iMessage Apps, GPU Programming, Tensorflow, how to advertise an application, and ask the age old question... "Do I really need ALL the mobile platforms?". Links & Show Notes Apple Search Ads (http://searchads.apple.com/) Tensorflow (https://www.tensorflow...
What better way to start 2017 than a crash course in fun new things for developers to start playing around with. We pick out our favorite topics that developers ought to know to try out in 2017. We look at new interactive ways of designing and building user interfaces, how to run .NET on Linux, how to properly use the linker, and finally how to compile C# & F# code to JavaScript. Links & Show Notes What Xamarin Developers Ought to Know to Start 2017 What .NET Developers Ought to Know to ...
What does it take to enable and test In-App Purchases in your application? We cover the ins and outs of each step in the process. We walk through the different reasons why you may want to consider adding IAP, what is available, and how to simplify your life by not making the mistakes James has. In addition, we follow up on Episode 16 with a quick recap of the Nintendo Switch event. Links & Show Notes Micro.Blog In-App Billing Plugin Nintendo Switch Conference AdMob for iOS AdMob for Android ...
Frank is off traveling the world, but that hasn't stopped him from coding on the road. This week we take a look at being productive while away from home including the software and hardware to stay light and productive, how to get internet away from the US, and what complications we have both run into. Links & Show Notes iPad Pro Prompt2 App Working Copy App GoBag Chrome Remote Desktop Frank: Twitter , Blog , GitHub James: Twitter , Blog , GitHub Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventurefa...
