The Hacker’s Tribute Vol. 20 celebrates alongside .NET, Python, and Kafka in fabulous style. We teach the magic behind custom-designed PCBs, and warn you of the negative future of Bitbucket.
Warmest greetings!
Twenty issues in the bag, and we’re flying higher than ever! If the heat isn’t enough for you – we’re celebrating frivolously.
As the newly-established saying goes, with time, come the bills. Our birthday is excellent news, on the backdrop of some equally-lively info. .Net and Java have some spectacular announcements to make, as does BitBucket – albeit a little on the uninviting side.
News both good and bad adorn our special issue – so dig in, it’s going to be a wild one.
Our twentieth anniversary is a moment in history!
Now’s time for the balloons!
Dan ‘the Man’ Kowalski
Editor-in-Chief, The Hacker’s Tribute
1. Kicking the Bitbucket
It’s official – Bitbucket is withdrawing repository support for Mercurial. Does this worry you? Where should you go? Well, you have until 2020 to head straight for the Git. The dramatic timeline runs as follows; February 1 – no new Mercurial repositories. June 1 – no access to Mercurial features, with full removal. All current functionality will remain available through May 31st, 2020. With only 1% frequency, it seems to make logical sense. But some are up in arms. How about you? You mad, bro (or sis)?
2. PCB-Building at Home: DIY-not?
True techies will agree. Sometimes, to do something right, you roll up the sleeves of your commemorative NASA t-shirt and make the damn thing yourself. PCB-making requires no messy work (unless that’s your thing – in which case, I’ll leave you to it – but stay away from me). For those with respect for order, a laser engraver is your new hero. Don’t worry; there’s a video in this link, I respect that you’re a ‘visual learner’.
https://hackaday.com/2019/08/27/another-way-to-make-pcbs-at-home/
3. The Mysteries of Python – Unravelled!
Firstly, Concurrent Programming – the evil twin of Parallel Execution, is not equivalent to its sibling. Secondly, Python is filled with built-ins that facilitate us to build concurrent programmes. Lastly, multi-threading is not precisely what it seems, not in Python, at least. Consider this hint; timing. You’re welcome.
https://hackernoon.com/concurrent-programming-in-python-is-not-what-you-think-it-is-b6439c3f3e6a
4. .NET Conf: Woodstock of the WWW
It’s the conference to end (or begin – depending on your perspective of the world) all conferences. The free-to-attend virtual developer event happens from 23rd-25th of September. We’re expecting fireworks or a close digital equivalent. Our issues of the HT have given this much attention, so we deserve to see some commemoration! Enjoy live sessions, Q&A, with presentations on virtually everything ‘DotNET’.
5. Java – A Record Journey
Dustin’s Software Development Cogitation and Speculations may seem a grandiose title, and you’d be right in thinking so. But the ideas within this Jane Austen-inspired tech blog are nothing short of extraordinarily ground-shifting. Therefore, listen up; draft Java specifications have begun to appear for the proposed class, curiously termed; java.lang.Record. They provide a compact syntax for declaring classes that are transparent holders for shallowly immutable data. The literary masterpiece of a blog post says it best, of course – as we’re just making the introduction!
https://marxsoftware.blogspot.com/2019/08/java-record-draft-specification.html
6. The Kafkaesque World of Apache
Officially, messages sent to a topic partition will be appended in their sent order. Lies, dirty lies. Sometimes exceptions must be made, even on default config! Read the insights here and learn how (with a little risk to changing producer throughput) you can update this behaviour, by one minor producer setting. Sometimes, amidst the chaos, it takes a single well-placed number ‘1’. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere.
https://blog.softwaremill.com/does-kafka-really-guarantee-the-order-of-messages-3ca849fd19d2
Knowledge is free and shared. We’re always on the lookout for new insights into the world of App Development. Get in touch with us, and we’ll give you a heads up on your next big idea.
We’ll be in touch with more news, as it happens!
