O'reilly Programming Podcast - O'reilly Media Podcast

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Rising barriers to entry, the complexity of the modern web, and a preview of upcoming Fluent sessions.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with two of the program chairs for the upcoming O’Reilly Fluent Conference (July 11-14 in San Jose), Kyle Simpson and Tammy Everts. Simpson is co-author of the HTML 5 Cookbook, and the author of the You Don’t Know JS series of books. Everts is the chief experience officer at SpeedCurve and the author of Time is Money: The Business Value of Web Performance.Discussion points: Simpson says that one of the biggest challenges facing JavaScript developers is that the previously low barrier to entry has been raised significantly: “JavaScript developers are facing a monumental task of juggling a vast ecosystem of tools and processes that go around, and on top of, and in front of, what used to just be opening a text file and typing JavaScript.” Everts talks about the challenges of designi

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: How to build evolvable systems.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Rebecca Parsons, chief technology officer at ThoughtWorks. She will be leading the workshop Building Evolutionary Architectures Hands-On at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON), July 16-19, 2018, in Portland, Oregon. Parsons also is co-author (with Neal Ford and Patrick Kua) of the book Building Evolutionary Architectures.Discussion points: The shift in focus to evolvability rather than predictability: “When you look at the way the technology landscape is changing,” Parsons says, “trying to say you can predict any kind of technology roadmap is simply impractical.” Why evolutionary systems need to be easy to understand: “How easy it is to change an architecture directly correlates with how easy it is to understand what’s happening in the system,” she says. The role of fitness functions: “Fitness functions are defining w

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Containers, orchestrators, and new projects.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk about Kubernetes, containers, and more with Bridget Kromhout, a principal cloud developer advocate at Microsoft, and a frequent speaker at tech conferences. She will be leading the workshop Kubernetes 101 at the O’Reilly Velocity Conference in San Jose, June 11-14, 2018, and at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON), July 16-19, 2018.Discussion points: The role that Docker played in popularizing containers. “Docker democratized containers and made them more available so that it increased adoption significantly,” Kromhout says. “You didn’t need to be a kernel expert; you could use containers as a developer without needing to focus on kernel features.” The main parts of a Kubernetes architecture, including the master and nodes, and a look at a Kubernetes cluster Some open source projects that are making Kubernetes

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Creating and implementing continuous delivery pipelines.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk about Jenkins 2 and Git with Brent Laster, who presents a number of live online training courses on these topics (including Building a deployment pipeline with Jenkins 2, and Next level Git). Laster will also present the workshop Power Git at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, July 16-19, 2018, in Portland, Oregon, and he is the author of the forthcoming O’Reilly book Jenkins 2: Up and Running.Discussion points: The benefits of the pipeline-as-code model, introduced in Jenkins 2. Laster calls it “more of a DevOps take on things. It adds a lot more flexibility around creating your pipelines, and allows you to treat them like source code.” The differences between continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment, the topic of a 2017 report by Laster The Groovy-based Jenkins DSL, and Bl

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Building reactive applications.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Richard Warburton and Raoul-Gabriel Urma of Iteratr Learning. They are the presenters of a series of O’Reilly Learning Paths, including Getting Started with Reactive Programming and Build Reactive Applications in Java 8. Warburton is the author of Java 8 Lambdas, and Urma is the author of Java 8 in Action.Discussion points: The benefits to developers that came out of the introduction of lambdas and streams in Java 8 How Akka’s actor model helps in the creation of reactive and asynchronous applications Comparing the uses of RxJava versus the Java 8 streams API to develop reactive code Warburton’s and Urma’s ideas for preparing the next generation of developers for the requirements of industry, the focus of their forthcoming book Real World Software Development Other links: &#

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: The Java module system and the “start of a new era.”In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Paul Bakker, senior software engineer on the edge developer experience team at Netflix, and Sander Mak, a fellow at Luminis Technologies. They are the authors of the O’Reilly book Java 9 Modularity, in which they call the introduction of the module system to the platform “the start of a new era.” Discussion points: The adoption and usage of the Java 9 module system: “This won’t happen overnight,” Mak says. “The community will see that when they’re creating new applications on top of Java 9, they will definitely be able to reap the benefits from the module system.” Factors to consider when making a decision on whether to use the Java 9 module system or OSGi. Issues regarding how to modularize existing code. Frameworks that support the Java 9 module system: Bakker cites Vert.x, and Mak di

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: A look at some of Python’s valuable, but often overlooked, features.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk about Python with Luciano Ramalho, technical principal at ThoughtWorks, author of the O’Reilly book Fluent Python, and presenter of the Oriole Fluent Python: The Power of Special Methods.Discussion points: The value of some often-overlooked features of Python, including generators, iterators, and the range() function. How Python’s Asyncio module “brought a definition of what the interface should be for an event loop into the core standard library,” says Ramalho. Why Ramalho calls pytest his “go-to library for unit testing, and other kinds of testing.” Striving to avoid surprises and trying to follow the conventions of the language are two characteristics of what Ramalho describes as a “good Pythonic API.” The work of the Python Software Foundation to increa

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: How to effectively make the transition from monoliths to microservices.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, we revisit our June 2017 conversation with Sam Newman, presenter of the O’Reilly video course The Principles of Microservices and the online training course From Monolith to Microservices. He is also the author of the book Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems.Here are some highlights from the conversation: Getting started with microservices If you’re interested in adopting a microservice architecture, start with only one or two services at the beginning. Get them deployed into production, and see if it gives you the outcome you’re looking for. How microservices allow scaling By breaking apart a monolithic system into individual services, those individual services could be scaled up as required. I could run my pricing engine on multiple separate physical machines, allowing it to han

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: The impact of ARKit on developers and consumers.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Wendy Wise, technical director of emerging technologies at Turner Broadcasting System, and author of the recent article “How to pick the right authoring tools for VR and AR.” She is developing Learning Paths, which will be released on Safari in 2018, on how to get started with ARKit using Unity and XCode.Discussion points: On the distinction between virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), Wise says that in VR, “the virtual world is painted completely over everything and it obscures your eyes completely from the outside world. In AR, you have a view of the real world, with computer-aided content laid on top of that, augmenting actual reality.” Apple’s ARKit, which allows developers to create augmented reality applications that work on the newer iPhones and iPads, “opened up the augmented reality landscape to billions of

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Wrangling data with Python’s libraries and packages.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Katharine Jarmul, a Python developer and data analyst whose company, Kjamistan, provides consulting and training on topics surrounding machine learning, natural language processing, and data testing. Jarmul is the co-author (along with Jacqueline Kazil) of the O’Reilly book Data Wrangling with Python, and she has presented the live online training course Practical Data Cleaning with Python.Discussion points: How data wrangling enables you to take real-world data and “clean it, organize it, validate it, and put it in some format you can actually work with,” says Jarmul. Why Python has become a preferred language for use in data science: Jarmul cites the accessibility of the language and the emergence of packages such as NumPy, pandas, SciPy, and scikit-learn. Jarmul calls pandas “Excel on steroids” and say

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: The skills needed to make the move from developer to architect.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Nathaniel Schutta, a solutions architect at Pivotal, and presenter of the video I’m a Software Architect, Now What?. He will be giving a presentation titled Thinking Architecturally at the 2018 O’Reilly Software Architecture Conference, February 25-28, 2018, in New York City.Discussion points: How Schutta sees the role of the software architect: “I like to say that as architects, we’re like the Rosetta Stone of an organization,” he says. “We’re the ones playing the translation game between the development side, the management side, and the business side. We have to be able to fit comfortably between those groups.” On the challenges in moving from being a software developer to becoming a software architect: “As developers, we’re largely insulated from much of the politics of the o

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Applying architectural patterns and pattern languages to build systems for the cloud.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Matt Stine, global CTO of architecture at Pivotal. He is the presenter of the O’Reilly live online training course Cloud-Native Architecture Patterns, and he has spoken about cloud-native architecture at the recent O’Reilly Software Architecture Conference and O’Reilly Security Conference.Discussion points: The importance of creating a shared understanding of core architectural terms: “There are probably 20-30 conflicting definitions of ‘microservices’ floating around,” Stine says. “If we try to build some complicated software on top of a poor shared understanding, basically we’re all going to be confused.” How patterns can make sense of an ongoing paradigm shift in software architecture: “The industry is learning quite rapidly that this ‘design thinking’ and this ‘language thinkin

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Embracing late changes, plurality, and decentralization.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Michael Nygard, a software architect at Cognitect. He has spoken about “architecture without an end state” at numerous O’Reilly Software Architecture events, and he is the author of the book Release It! Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software.Discussion points: Architecture without an end state means accepting that “changes you’re starting now will co-exist with changes that started last year and the year before,” Nygard says. “If you adopt that perspective, then you stop trying to rip up the pavement and do something completely new, and you focus a lot more on incremental change.” Quoting Mary Poppendieck, Nygard says that changes in scope should be embraced as an opportunity. “It’s not only reality that we’re going to have technical disruptions to our systems; we’re going to have business disruptions as

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Inside the development of a new Go ecosystem.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Mark Bates, presenter of a number of videos and Learning Paths on Go (including Go Core Techniques and Tools and Go Web Framework and Techniques), a frequent speaker at Go conferences, and an organizer for events including GopherCon and Gotham Go.  Bates is also the creator of the Go web ecosystem Buffalo.Discussion points: Bates describes Buffalo as an ecosystem rather than a framework. “Buffalo is more than just a framework,” he says. “It’s a seamless set of tools and experiences. Buffalo helps you through the entire process from creating a brand new app to deploying your app.” How Buffalo can make writing web applications in Go quicker and easier. “To be up and running and to see business logic so quickly is exciting,” he says. “Everything works together and you can get to the enjoyment of coding.”

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: A look at a new systems programming language.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Jim Blandy and Jason Orendorff, both of Mozilla, where Blandy works on Firefox’s web developer tools and Orendorff is the module owner of Firefox’s JavaScript engine. They are the authors of the new O’Reilly book Progamming Rust.Discussion points: How Rust helps developers avoid common errors such as dangling pointers and buffer overruns The differences between Rust and C++: “In C++ you get undefined behavior,” Orendorff says.  “Rust avoids having undefined behavior, making it easier to write secure, correct software.” Concurrency in Rust: “With Rust, when you write multi-threaded code, the language itself catches data races at compile time,” Blandy says.  “So, by the time your project compiles, it is free of data races.” Rust’s learning curve: “If you assume you can learn it th

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: A look at what’s new in Java 9 and Spring 5.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Ken Kousen, an author, instructor, and consultant who is presenting the live online training courses Functional Programming in Java 8 and Getting Started with Spring Boot in September and October. He is also the author of the newly published O’Reilly book Modern Java Recipes: Simple Solutions to Difficult Problems in Java 8 and 9.Discussion points: The impact of Java 8’s functional programming-related changes, including Lambda expressions, method references, and streams The issues surrounding Project Jigsaw and Java modularization in the forthcoming release of Java 9. “The biggest issue that will affect the open source world and your own code is that public and private no longer really mean what they sound like they should mean,” Kousen says. “This has widespread ramifications, especially for library developers.”

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Building applications that work everywhere for everyone.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Adam Scott, who has authored a series of ebooks on the topic of ethical web development, the most recent of which is Collaborative Web Development. He is also the presenter of the video Introduction to Modern Front-End Development. Scott is the web development lead at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he focuses on building open source tools.Discussion points: How ethical web development encourages developers to make user-centered decisions Scott’s principles for ethical web development, including: building applications that work everywhere, work for everyone, and respect users’ privacy and security Why developers should consider accessibility from the start of a project, not just at the end of the development process Scott says that web developers represent “the

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: The next technological evolution of cloud systems.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk serverless architecture with Mike Roberts, engineering leader and co-founder of Symphonia, a serverless and cloud architecture consultancy. Roberts will give two presentations—Serverless Architectures: What, Why, Why Not, and Where Next? and Designing Serverless AWS Applications—at the O’Reilly Software Architecture Conference, October 16-19, 2017, in London.Discussion points: Why Roberts calls serverless “the next evolution of cloud systems,” as individual process deployment and the resource allocation of servers are increasingly outsourced to vendors How serverless architectures use backend-as-a-service (BaaS) products and functions-as-a-service (FaaS) platforms The similarities and differences between a serverless architecture and microservices, and how microservices ideas can be applied to ser

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Creating designs that are more flexible and resilient to change.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Robson, presenters of the live online training course Design Patterns Boot Camp, and co-authors (with Bert Bates and Kathy Sierra) of Head First Design Patterns, among other books. They are also co-founders of WickedlySmart, an online learning company for software developers.Discussion points: How to use design patterns, which are solutions that have been repeatedly applied to particular object-oriented problems Examples of the types of “non-obvious solutions” that can be achieved through design patterns How design patterns can help create a shared vocabulary that can improve teams’ collaborations The difference between design patterns and design principles WickedlySmart’s projects, including “Game of Life,” which explores t

The O’Reilly Programming Podcast: Using Python decorators, generators, and functions.In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk all things Python with Aaron Maxwell, presenter of the live online training courses Python: Beyond The Basics, and Python: The Next Level. He is also the author of the book Powerful Python: The Most Impactful Patterns, Features and Development Strategies Modern Python Provides.Discussion points: The importance of writing code that others developers want to use, and how Python’s features (particularly its object model hooks) enable developers to write more useful code What Python decorators do, and how the process of learning to write Python decorators can help a developer master understanding of Python as a whole How Python generators are an excellent tool for implementing highly scalable software The ever-increasing transition from Python Version 2 to Version 3: Maxwell n