At CODE Magazine, we believe it is our responsibility to help educate our readers in the technologies used in their careers. There is an additional responsibility, helping readers understand new technologies that have the potential to affect their careers in both the near and long term.
Last week, the publishers and editorial staff of CODE Magazine met to discuss the concepts and technologies that we feel will be important to software developers in the coming months and years. In this issue, I want to spend some time giving you, the reader, a heads up on the major subject areas we will be covering in future issues of CODE Magazine.
Web Development Concepts
Over the last decade, innumerable advancements have been made in helping developers deliver applications via the simplest of all software protocols: HTTP (aka the Web). For the last 10 years, CODE Magazine has helped developers navigate this torrential river of technological advancement. In future issues, we will continue to help you understand the latest and greatest tools available in the field of Web development.
Some technologies and tools covered will include: HTML5 standards-based Web development, new developments in JavaScript, JavaScript frameworks, CSS 3 and beyond, Node.js and Node.js frameworks.
Mobile Development
You may find this hard to believe, but the iPhone was released just over six years ago (June 29, 2007 to be exact). Little did we know that the creation of a simple mobile device would unleash a vast market for mobile application development services.
In just over half a decade, there are literally billions of mobile application installations, on hundreds of millions of Android- (a relative newcomer) and IOS-based mobile devices. The demand for mobile applications has not abated, and with the release of Windows Phone 8, the demand continues to be strong.
You can probably tell where this is leading. CODE Magazine will help explore the tools and techniques employed to build mobile applications. Topics will include: native IOS, Android and Windows 8 development, cross-platform development tools like Xamarin, PhoneGap, Icenium, Appcelerator and any other new tools in this application space.
Cloud Services
On any given evening, there is a Web-based application that consumes one-third of the Web's available bandwidth. Could it be the millions of tweets sent daily by Justin Bieber fans? How about the millions of downloads of Daft Punk's latest CD from iTunes? Maybe it's hundreds of millions of people updating their Facebook statuses? Oh wait. It has to be the latest video from Psy that was just uploaded to YouTube. If you answered yes to any of these you would be way off target.
The answer to this question is Netflix. According to this article in Business Week http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-09/netflix-reed-hastings-survive-missteps-to-join-silicon-valleys-elite, Netflix uses more bandwidth than YouTube, HBO GO, iTunes, Hulu, Amazon and BitTorrent combined.
How does Netflix do it? They do it by hosting their entire business on Amazon Web Services using anywhere from 10-20,000 servers at any given time. The beauty of this is the fact that Amazon's cloud services can be tapped into by mom-and-pop companies as well as the Fortune 500.
Another cool aspect of cloud technology is the high number of capable competitors in this space. Competition is good for developers; it lowers costs and forces companies to innovate. Nowhere is this more true than in cloud services. We will be doing our best to give you insight into what is available in the cloud offerings from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Rackspace, and any others that surface to the peak our voracious curiosity.
System Architecture
With an ever-expanding menu of development choices, what is the best way to architect applications? This is an area we plan to explore in some detail. We will try to uncover real-world architectures and show you how to build applications using best-of-breed ideas and concepts.
Data Technologies
One of the most important aspects of software development is the storage and retrieval of data. This is yet another area where the rate of development has achieved “ludicrous speed” and we will continue our exploration of the tools available to you. Topics will include: SQL-based server technology, NoSQL storage applications, document data stores, key/value stores, columnar databases, and others.
Software Basics
One of the problems facing global industry is a deficit of trained software developers. In the coming years, CODE Magazine will try and help reduce this deficit by providing more basic software articles. We will cover things like beginner-programming techniques, HTML/CSS basics, basic JavaScript coding, basic Ruby Coding, and once again, introductions to technologies we are curious about ourselves.
Keeping Our Roots
Do not fear! Along with these new technologies, CODE Magazine will continue to provide the best content available for .NET Developers. We will continue to explore advancements in C#, the .NET Framework, ASP.NET, ASP.NET/MVC, Entity Framework, and many other technologies that we still know and love.
The Future is Bright
Software development is not for the faint of heart. The tools and technologies are an ever-changing lot and it's up to us, as stewards for our readers, to help keep you current. I really hope you enjoy the ride!
