PC World Business

Brought to you by

Software Development

Features

+

Open-source media player VLC hits the big time 10/07/2009 07:00:00
The most important addition to VLC 1.0.0, and one that will garner the most attention, is the ability to easily record all media on the fly

For several years, the free, third-party media player of choice for many video connoisseurs was the open-source VLC media player. It worked on multiple operating systems, it worked on a bare install of Windows without any special codecs, and it was light and fast. All that is still true. Now, VLC finally hits an important milestone: version 1.0.0 (given the James Bond-referencing nickname of Goldeneye), and with this version comes a pile of useful new features.
+

Is Chrome OS the future of computing? I hope not. 09/07/2009 06:43:00
Both users and app developers are still hungry for so-called "native" applications--that is, software designed for a particular operating system

Google's idea of an operating system sounds pretty cool: Lightweight. Speedy. Secure. Web-centric. But while I'm sure Chrome OS will pick up some fans, I have a hard time seeing this as the way of the future for computing.
+

Software not smart enough to sort human relationships 29/06/2009 16:10:00
World-Check relies on people, not software, to build database of high-risk individuals for banks.

Internet search engines and software applications can catalog huge volumes of information, but they aren't smart enough to trace personal relationships between people, according to the executive chairman of World-Check, a company that maintains a database of individuals that banks and other companies might want to think twice about doing business with.
+

HTML 5: Could it kill Flash and Silverlight? 17/06/2009 08:09:00
The budding Web spec just might remove the need for proprietary rich Internet app add-ins

HTML 5, a groundbreaking upgrade to the prominent Web presentation specification, could become a game-changer in Web application development, one that might even make obsolete such plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX.
+

Adobe Flash, Flex ignite with Flash Catalyst 16/06/2009 07:55:00
Adobe Flex 4 SDK, Flash Builder 4, and Flash Catalyst betas close the gap between great UI design and rich Internet application development

If only it were as easy to build a Web application as it is to design one in Illustrator and Photoshop. Maybe it will be someday, and maybe that someday is closer than we might think. Adobe has certainly succeeded in shrinking the distance between design and development with its latest batch of RIA tools: Adobe Flex 4 SDK, Adobe Flash Builder 4 (the Flex Builder IDE renamed), and Adobe Flash Catalyst, all recently made available in public beta.
+

Mozilla's Jetpack builds on Firefox's top strength 23/05/2009 00:55:00
The move comes as Google is pushing developers to create add-ons for its Chrome browser

Ask people what they like most about the Firefox browser and the answer is almost unanimous: The add-ons. Though blamed for slowing browser performance, the downloads allow users to customize the Firefox experience. Jetpack, announced yesterday, hopes to make these extensions easier to create.
+

One way to build mobile-friendly apps for all devices 23/05/2009 04:20:00
Adam Blum's 12-person company will attempt to help enterprises both mobilize their existing applications and build new native mobile applications from scratch that work across multiple mobile platforms

Adam Blum, CEO of startup Rhomobile, says 90% of the programs being written with his company's open source mobile application framework are by ISVs and the other 10% by enterprises, but over time he'd like to see those percentages reversed.
+

Old-school programming techniques you probably don't miss 30/04/2009 09:52:00
11 skills and tactics that every programmer once needed to master ... and today can blissfully forget

Despite its complexity, the software development process has gotten better over the years. "Mature" programmers remember how many things required manual intervention and hand-tuning back in the day. Today's software development tools automatically perform complex functions that programmers once had to write explicitly. And most developers are glad of it!
+

King of the dynamic IDEs 27/02/2009 08:48:00
Multilingual ActiveState Komodo 5.0 conquers Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby projects with strong debug facilities, excellent code control, and an unbeatable set of utilities

Komodo IDE 5 from ActiveState is the most comprehensive code editor and debugger available for enterprise teams that develop applications using a range of dynamic languages. Komodo's strong debugging skills are blended with broad-based coding support for Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby, not to mention Tcl, Java, C, C++, Visual Basic, and many more. With powerful HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and XML support, Komodo is a great Web 2.0 companion as well.
+

Rich Internet apps that double as desktop apps 03/02/2009 09:15:00
RIAs can make Web browsers as responsive as desktop applications. We look at four technologies that cross the online gap.

Finding a single development environment for all purposes has so far proven an unattainable goal. But with the advent of rich Internet applications (RIA), development nirvana gets a bit closer.
+

Linux 2.6.28's five best features 13/01/2009 09:49:00
Five features that Linux users will appreciate the most

While you were likely to be opening up Christmas presents, Linus Torvalds was giving Linux users around the world a special present: the release of the next major Linux kernel: Linux 2.6.28.