What if a data storage library just stored and retrieved your data? What if it wasn't a mollusk? Carl and Richard talk to Mark Rendle about his refocusing on his open source library called Simple.Data - now with .NET Core! Mark talks about why Simple.Data is not an ORM, and why you don't want to use an ORM anyway. And yeah, the conversation gets sillier from there! Mark also talks about what it means to build a library that runs on all the platform (because Core) and the challenge of getting eve...
Sep 13, 2016•54 min
Can you build a line of business web application and not write any JavaScript? Carl and Richard talk to Tomáš Herceg about his open source project called DotVVM. With DotVVM, you write your ViewModel in C# and your View in HTML. The JavaScript is generated at run time, and you never need to look at it. While there are free open source elements to the project, there are also "pro" editions of some features that you can pay for to keep the project going. Lots of controls to make your pages look go...
Sep 07, 2016•51 min
Are you building XAML-driven applications yet? Carl and Richard chat with Billy Hollis about what it takes to get going with building XAML applications. As Billy says, XAML is a "compositional" platform, which is a very different way to think about how to build user interfaces. Ultimately, these design principles become platform-agnostic - you can use whatever tools you want to build them. Is it hard to think this way? It does take time, but the products you make stand out as just a better way t...
Sep 06, 2016•59 min
Are you adding feature toggles to your apps? Carl and Richard talk to Daniel Piessens about his approach to adding feature toggles, using frameworks to keep things organized. The conversation starts out talking about different kinds of features toggles, starting with the classic one that allows you to build features over time, but keep the code in the trunk, just not visible to the users until you're ready. In some cases, that feature toggle because permanent because it is a tool for ops to redu...
Sep 01, 2016•53 min
How about *no* JavaScript libraries? Carl and Richard talk to Chris Love about his passion with making the smallest, fastest web applications possible. The conversation starts out with the idea that JavaScript libraries, like most code libraries, constantly grow - old code, support for things that don't matter any more, and features that you aren't using, all add up to a lot of bytes and compute time that you don't need to waste. Chris talks about how he doesn't write everything from scratch, he...
Aug 31, 2016•1 hr 2 min
React comes to Windows! Carl and Richard talk to Matthew Podwysocki and Eric Rozell about using React for Windows to build native Windows applications while programming in JavaScript! Originally intended for mobile apps, React Native works equally well building Windows 10 apps that work on phone, tablet and desktop. The conversation also turns to the conjunction of all things react and reactive - why do they go together? Matt talks about how the philosophy of streaming and event response build a...
Aug 30, 2016•47 min
We all want to believe we have good habits when it comes to programming - but what about the bad habits? Carl and Richard chat with Steve Smith and Brendan Enrick about some of the many anti-patterns that exist in software development. Part of this conversation also ties back to a cool product that Steve and Brendan create - the Software Craftsmanship calendar! Be part of the Kickstarter and get yourself a hilarious and inspirational calendar! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-...
Aug 25, 2016•54 min
Why would a client-side Javascript library have a command line interface? Carl and Richard talk to Joseph Woodward about the power of the Angular CLI. It's all about the scripting! Joseph talks about all those tedious tasks involved in getting an application set up when you're ready to push out to the world. Angular CLI is all about automating that process using NodeJS style modules. The conversation also explores utilizing as many existing tools as possible, like Bower, Sass, and so on. You don...
Aug 24, 2016•47 min
A new version of Akka.NET has shipped! Carl and Richard talk to Aaron Stannard about Akka.NET 1.1. The discussion starts out talking about some of the new features in the latest release, which is focused on providing the tooling needed to build highly reliable and scaling enterprise class software. Aaron also digs into the differences between Akka.NET and other actor model frameworks. Akka is growing up! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/net-rocks/donations...
Aug 23, 2016•52 min
More cloud choices! Carl and Richard welcome Chris Sells back onto .NET Rocks after three years and a career change - Chris is now at Google! And he's been busy, excited to announce that Google is provided extensive support for .NET in the Google Cloud, including Visual Studio add-ins to make your implementation even easier. The conversation ranges over the modern cloud development pattern of building code, packaging it into containers (aka Docker) and then deploying into the cloud - for Google ...
Aug 18, 2016•51 min
There has been lots of conversation about cross-platform mobile apps, but how about cross-platform desktop apps? Carl and Richard talk to David Neal about the Electron framework, letting you build cross-platform desktop apps using HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Electron is how visual Studio Code is built! The conversation also turns to Xamarin - would you rather code in C# and XAML? Lots of choices for cross-platform development, it's worth taking a few out for a spin! Support this podcast at — https...
Aug 17, 2016•49 min
Ready to move to .NET Core? Carl and Richard talk to Stackify's Matt Watson about their efforts to migrate their applications to the RTM editions of the .NET Core and ASP.NET Core. For better or worse, there have been a number of major changes between the two RCs and the RTM. But this is the version to stick to, so if you haven't started to move, now is a great time. Matt also talks about the challenges of losing certain libraries - projects that haven't been migrated to the Core editions yet. S...
Aug 16, 2016•58 min
Could there really be airliners powered by electricity? Time for a Geek Out! The conversation starts out with Richard talking about the Solar Impulse, a single seat aircraft with a wingspan larger than a 747, that has flown around the world powered solely by the solar panels covering it. So yes, electric aircraft are real, but could they be made commercially viable? NASA continues to fund various research projects to improve modern airliners by increasing fuel efficiency, decrease emissions and ...
Aug 11, 2016•51 min
What's a really modern web app look like? Carl and Richard talk to Qiming Liu about the Reactive Trader Cloud, demonstrating the synergy between the cloud, containers, microservices, the Reactive Extensions Framework and ReactJS on the client to make a real time currency trader application. The application is on GitHub, you can take it out for a spin for yourself and get a feel for this cool architecture. Qiming talks about treating all data as streams with the Reactive Framework for Javascript,...
Aug 10, 2016•48 min
What does it take to make an application support multiple customers? Carl and Richard talk to Paul Stovell about his work making multi-tenant applications. As with most things, making multi-tenant apps is more complicated than it seems! Paul talks about making architectural decisions around separation between various customers - do they each get their own database? What about web server and/or app-pool? What about customizations and deployment. Do customers get new features immediately, or do th...
Aug 09, 2016•50 min
How long does it take you to get an idea into a URL? Carl and Richard talk to Daniel Moore about HyperDev - a tool to make the shortest possible path between writing code and putting it online. Initially only implementing Node and HTML, you can use your Javascript skills to build a quick prototype that is easily shareable, even allow multiple people to work on the code together. At this point the system is relatively small, but it's easy to move off onto your own platform once you get your idea ...
Aug 04, 2016•49 min
F# that transpiles to Javascript! Wait, what? While at NDC is Oslo, Carl and Richard chatted with Tomas Petricek about the Fabel project, combining F# and the Babel project to turn F# into some tight Javascript code. Tomas talks about the easy parts of Fabel first, because Javascript does have some functional elements, and it is possible to write immutable-style code in Javascript if you really want to. Then come the more difficult parts, like typing. There's a judgement call to make about what ...
Aug 03, 2016•58 min
So how's your DevOps doing? While at DevTeach in Montreal, Carl and Richard hosted a panel of Stephane LaPointe, Dylan Smith, William Buchwalter and Alexandre Brisebois to discuss the ups and downs of getting teams to work closer together to make better products and provide better services. The conversation focuses first and foremost on culture - the chant of People, Process and Products around DevOps is not accidental, without a commitment in culture, nothing much can happen. How do we create o...
Aug 02, 2016•59 min
How do we get more women involved in programming? Carl and Richard talk to Astrid de Laval and Andreas Persson about CodePub, a gathering hosted by NetLight to get women coding. The events have been running in Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo and more over the past several months, drawing larger and larger crowds. Every event involves some coding exercises even for complete novices who have never coded before. CodeHub is looking to put on more events in more places - if you'd like to be a part of it, r...
Jul 28, 2016•37 min
Ready to learn R? While at NDC Oslo, Carl and Richard sat down with Jamie Dixon and Evelina Gabasova to talk about what .NET developers need to know to get conversant in R. Data science represents a huge opportunity for developers these days, helping businesses actually take advantage of the data the company has. Jamie comes at R from a traditional .NET developer perspective, talking about how there are some skills (like source control and testing) that developers have more experience with than ...
Jul 27, 2016•55 min
Time to get scared times three! While at NDC Oslo, Carl and Richard hosted a security panel of Troy Hunt, Niall Merrigan and Stephen Haunts in front of a live NDC audience. The conversation starts where most security conversation start - on passwords. Yes, passwords suck. The challenge is making them suck less. Beyond passwords, what aspects of application security are the responsibility of the developer, and what are more the focus of operations? Check out the links below for a number of tools ...
Jul 26, 2016•57 min
Ready to talk about Thorium again? Since the last Thorium Geek Out in 2013, there have been a number of important developments. Richard takes Carl on a tour of why we want Thorium as a fuel, molten salt as a reactor design, and the choices we can make around different turbine technologies. Aspects of molten salt reactors continue to mature, offering continuous fuel reprocessing that means more of the dangerous radioactive material can be used for heat and left with safe residuals. Is it time to ...
Jul 21, 2016•55 min
How do we get all our IoT devices talking to each other? While at NDC in Oslo, Carl and Richard chatted with Jimmy Engstrom about AllJoyn, a Qualcomm started project now part of the Linux Foundation that provides a common language for devices to communicate with. Jimmy talks about the different elements of AllJoyn, servers and clients and how they share information about their capabilities. There's a plugin for Visual Studio to make it easier for you to implement AllJoyn in your IoT applications...
Jul 20, 2016•49 min
ASP.NET Core is released, now what? Carl and Richard talk to Shawn Wildermuth about his efforts to migrate to the RTM of ASP.NET Core. As Shawn points out, the framework is ready, but the tooling is still in preview, so more changes to how you build your web sites and services will happen before everything is said and done. Lots of digressions in the show too, talking about the road trip, being an old developer and trying to do things right - a fun conversation! Support this podcast at — https:/...
Jul 19, 2016•53 min
What's the best way for you to learn new technology? Carl and Richard talk to Ben Hall about his latest creation, KataCoda. KataCoda is a free web site that hosts tutorial systems for a variety of technology content including Docker, Erlang, C#, Jenkins and so on. Rather than make you set up an environment to experiment with new tech, KataCoda is all set to go and has great scenarios and walkthrough for you to practice with. And when you're ready to try your own thing, there are playgrounds also...
Jul 14, 2016•45 min
Write your build scripts in C#! While at NDC in Oslo, Carl and Richard talked to Gary Ewan Park about Cake - aka C# Make. Cake is a cross platform build automation solution - it works on Windows, OSX and Linux. Gary talks about being able to work in C# to define everything that needs to happen in your build process, including testing, documentation generation and so on. Your script can call other scripts so that you can contain complexity based on task. And since it's an open source project, if ...
Jul 13, 2016•53 min
Quick, how long can a file path in .NET be? Carl and Richard talk to Jeremy Kuhne, who has taken on the challenge of breaking the 260 character limit on file paths in .NET. Why has this problem persisted for so long? Jeremy references some blog posts from Kim Hamilton back in 2007 when the issue came up big - at the time, .NET was deeply intertwined with Windows, and there were too many things to fix. But the creation of .NET Core presented an opportunity to fix the problem once and for all, and...
Jul 12, 2016•57 min
The Hololens SDK edition is out - are you ready to write some code? Carl and Richard talk to Rene Schulte at NDC Oslo about his work building apps for the Hololens. The conversation explores the differences in virtual reality and augmented reality and the huge number of possibilities out there for Hololens. Rene talks about what it's like to develop for Hololens, discussing the relative merits between writing code in Unity3D and the Universal Windows Platform (XAML!) - it's all C# in the end! Th...
Jul 07, 2016•51 min
How does testing contribute to the failure of a project? Todd Gardner chats with Carl and Richard at NDC Oslo about his experiences with failing projects and testing. More than just the usual case that a lack of testing led to unreliable software, Todd also talks about how testing the market is important too - what if you build software nobody wants? The focus has to be on relevant tests, because every test represents an overhead of computing and maintenance. This ultimately comes back to unders...
Jul 06, 2016•54 min
What does it mean to build for the cloud? While at NDC in Oslo, Carl and Richard chatted with Paul Stack about thinking about architecture specific for the cloud - not necessarily Azure or AWS, but the overall concepts of what it means to be in the cloud. It starts with the idea of everything you build being virtual and portable, whether than be VMs or containers. But there's also so-called 'server-less' designs as well, where your software runs on a platform in the cloud. If you could get rid o...
Jul 05, 2016•50 min
