Articles by David Bolton
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Kotlin in 2020: 'A Better Java' Continues to Mature
Kotlin is an open-source programming language that’s often pitched as a Java replacement; it’s also a “first class” language for Android development, according to Google. Over the past few years, Kotlin has enj… -
Is Desktop Development Dead? Or Still Worth It?
I started my first programming job in October 1981, developing desktop computer software on Apple II and Act Sirius. For the next twenty years, although I changed jobs, the tasks still involved developing deskt… -
New Python Programmer? Learn These Concepts First.
As a novice Python developer, the world is your oyster with regards to the type of applications that you can create. Despite its age (30 years—an eternity in tech-world terms), Python remains a dominant program… -
Running Android on PC: A Developer's Overview
As a developer, I occasionally have to test software on non-PC platforms. Naturally, it's easier if this testing takes place on a PC, as it makes debugging much easier. For example, what if you want to run Andr… -
.NET Core 3.0: A Close Look for Developers
Before we plunge into .NET Core, it's worth revisiting some of .NET's dense, tangled history. Twenty years ago, Microsoft was preparing the .NET framework for launch; in 2001, it produced the first beta of .NET… -
C++ and C: How These Languages are Diverging
C++ started life as “C with Classes” back in the 1980s, though it was quickly renamed “C++.” For much of the past thirty-odd years, C++ has been regarded as a superset of C; any C program could be compiled by a… -
4 Reasons to Employ Older Developers
Despite legislation making it overtly illegal, ageism persists in the technology industry. The fear is particularly acute because of fears that automation and A.I. will erode the overall number of human workers… -
5 Reasons to Use a VM for Development
I started using virtual machines (VMs) on my development PC about six years ago; I was keen to learn Linux, having been a Windows developer since the mid-1990s. At first, I used an old Windows PC and installed… -
Writing Faster Python with Functions, Lists, and More
Python is a great language that’s easy to learn (just keep in mind: "always indent after colons"), but it’s also possible that your written code ends up being quite slow. Such inelegantly written code isn’t “Py… -
Joys of Raspberry Pi Development: A Walkthrough
My first computer, an Amstrad PC1512 that I bought new in 1989, cost $1,200 (or roughly $2,460 in 2019 dollars). It came with 512Kb of RAM and two floppy disks, and ran at 8 MHZ. Thirty years later, I bought a…