Dr. Dobb's Articles

APIs for Image-Capture Applications

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:01:00 -0400

TWAIN, WIA, and DirectShow are three popular APIs for imaging apps. How do they differ and which one should you pick?

Pydoop: Writing Hadoop Programs in Python

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:53:00 -0400

Installed as a layer above Hadoop, the open-source Pydoop package enables Python scripts to do big data work easily.

Through A PRISM Darkly

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:28:00 -0400

The revelation of secret government eavesdropping is likely to substantially reshape companies' understanding of their data's safety.

Acquiring Big Data Using Apache Flume

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:07:00 -0400

Data analysis is only half the battle; getting the data into a Hadoop cluster is the first step in any Big Data deployment. Apache Flume uses an elegant design to make data loading easy and efficient.

Exceeding Supercomputer Performance with Intel Phi

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 03:52:00 -0400

Using MPI on inexpensive clusters of Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors can produce results that exceed the performance of today's high-end supercomputers.

Orthodoxy vs. Pragmatism, or How I Became a Better Developer

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 12:16:00 -0400

Few indeed are the practices that can be recommended universally. Wisdom suggests the humility of knowing this and applying it liberally.

Detailed Profiling of SQL Activity in MySQL 5.6

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 09:28:00 -0400

MySQL's latest update to the Performance Schema brings the ability to profile a statement's activity, low-level wait events, and I/O impact. It is the easiest and most detailed way to identify what statements to tune and how.

Reference Counting and Object Harvesting in Delphi

Tue, 28 May 2013 17:12:00 -0400

The latest versions of Delphi reclaim unused object and memory automatically. This feature requires a new perspective on calls to Free and to destructors.

C++ Reading List

Tue, 28 May 2013 12:45:00 -0400

The new C++11 standard has led to a flood of new books and updates to classics. These are the core books you need.

So You Want to Write A Mobile App? Place Your Bets!

Tue, 28 May 2013 08:36:00 -0400

On top of everything else, you'll have to make big bets on hardware platforms and development approaches. This won't be easy.

Access Data Items In Ancestor Stack Frames Safely

Thu, 23 May 2013 07:48:00 -0400

Allowing the code of one frame to recall the retained data of ancestor frames without harming efficiency, thread safety, or recurrence.

Why Aren't There Better Testing Tools?

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:44:00 -0400

Static analysis, UI record and playback, and load testing dominate today's testing tools. Just like they did in the 1990s. Where's the progress?

Jolt Awards: The Best Testing Tools

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:05:00 -0400

The best testing tools of the past year

Test-Driving Development for the Firefox OS Phone

Tue, 21 May 2013 07:38:00 -0400

Mozilla's Firefox OS delivers an easy way to develop and market apps for Android and the upcoming Mozilla-specific phone. Mike Riley takes a first look at developing apps for the platform.

Working with TypeScript in Visual Studio 2012

Tue, 14 May 2013 06:49:00 -0400

Using Visual Studio makes working with TypeScript easy and helps reveal subtleties of the language implementation and code generation.

Supercharging ASP.NET Web Form Apps

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:34:00 -0400

With the introduction of the ASP.NET Web API in ASP.NET 4.5, it is now possible to add advanced client-side functionality to existing sites

Dealing With All Our Stuff

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:22:00 -0400

Unneeded bits cost energy and mind space. Let's keep 'em to a minimum.

Keccak: The New SHA-3 Encryption Standard

Tue, 07 May 2013 03:58:00 -0400

After years of testing and analysis, the U.S. government selected the Keccak algorithm to be the new SHA-3 encryption standard. Here is how it works and how to use it.

Can Google's Dart Hit Its Target?

Mon, 06 May 2013 23:26:00 -0400

How can the fast, boring language from Google be a viable solution?

Microsoft TypeScript: The Lay of the Land

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:30:00 -0400

By creating a language that adds types to JavaScript, Microsoft made it easier to write complex Web apps, do compile-time syntax checking, and get better coding support in Visual Studio.

Making APIs Attractive to Developers

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 03:33:00 -0400

Some simple, but important, steps make it easy for developers to choose your API for their apps.

Introduction to Hadoop: Real-World Hadoop Clusters and Applications

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:57:00 -0400

The Hadoop ecosystem relies on composability — the ability to use output from one tool as input to the next — to efficiently process data at scale, from simple projects, to processing streams of real-time data, to building data warehouses.

The Clojure Philosophy

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:40:00 -0400

Simplicity, freedom to focus, empowerment, consistency, and clarity: Nearly every element of the Clojure programming language is designed to promote these goals.

Reusable Components Finally Arrive As Cloud-Based APIs

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 07:01:00 -0400

After 40 years in the desert of incompatibility and limited reuse, we have crossed the river Jordan.

Hadoop: Writing and Running Your First Project

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 03:04:00 -0400

MapReduce on small datasets can be run easily and without much coding or fiddling — provided you know what to do. Here's how.