InfoQ Homepage News
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V8 JavaScript Engine 7.4, 7.5, and 7.6 Add Numerous Performance Improvements
The recent 7.4, 7.5, and 7.6 versions of Google's V8 JavaScript engine add several WebAssembly features and JavaScript performance improvements.
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Microsoft Releases .NET Core 3.0 Preview 7
Last week Microsoft released .NET Core 3.0 Preview 7 for Windows, macOS, and Linux. This release marks the beginning of the freezing period for .NET Core. From this point on, no more new features will be added and the development team will focus on polishing the existing code.
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The First AI to Beat Pros in 6-Player Poker, Developed by Facebook and Carnegie Mellon
Facebook AI Research’s Noam Brown and Carnegie Mellon’s professor Tuomas Sandholm recently announced Pluribus, the first Artificial Intelligence program able to beat humans in 6 player hold-em poker. In the past years, computers have progressively improved, beating humans in checkers, chess, Go, and the Jeopardy TV show. Poker poses more challenges around information asymmetry and bluffing.
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OpenXR Spec Hits 1.0, Guarantees Backward-Compatibility
Backed by Epic, Microsoft, Oculus, and others, OpenXR aims to reduce fragmentation in the AR/VR space by setting an open, royalty-free standard for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) platforms and devices. Additions to version 1.0 include better support for input subsystem, game engine editor, and loader.
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Brian Goetz Speaks to InfoQ about Proposed Hyphenated Keywords in Java
On his continuing quest for productivity and performance in the Java language, Brian Goetz, Java language architect at Oracle, along with Alex Buckley, specification lead for the Java language and Java Virtual Machine at Oracle, proposed a set of hyphenated keywords to evolve the language as new features are added. Goetz spoke to InfoQ about these proposed hyphenated keywords.
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Successful Software Rewrites: The Slack for Desktop Case
With Netscape as an example, Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow, posited that rewriting code from scratch is the single worst strategic mistake any software company can make. The recent rewrite of Slack for Desktop seems to indicate otherwise.
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HashiCorp Releases Consul 1.6 with Layer 7 Dynamic Traffic Management and Cross-Network Connectivity
Hashicorp released version 1.6 of Consul, their service mesh application and key-value store. This release builds on the features added in version 1.5 by introducing layer 7 routing and traffic management. It additionally delivers a new feature, mesh gateway, to route service traffic across regions, platforms, and clouds.
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Researchers Develop Technique for Reducing Deep-Learning Model Sizes for Internet of Things
Researchers from Arm Limited and Princeton University have developed a technique that produces deep-learning computer-vision models for internet-of-things (IoT) hardware systems with as little as 2KB of RAM. By using Bayesian optimization and network pruning, the team is able to reduce the size of image recognition models while still achieving state-of-the-art accuracy.
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Google Cloud Memorystore Adds Import-Export and Redis 4.0
In a recent announcement, Google has unveiled two new features for Cloud Memorystore, their fully managed Redis service. These features consist of the beta of import-export, allowing to import and export data from and to other Redis instances, as well as the general availability of Redis 4.0 support.
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Google Introduces Spinnaker for GCP, Simplifying the Configuration of Continuous Delivery
Spinnaker is an open-source multi-cloud continuous delivery platform co-developed by Google and Netflix. In a recent blog post, Google introduced the Spinnaker for Google Cloud Platform solution, which allows customers to install and run Spinnaker in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
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Terraform 0.12 Release: New HCL Syntax, Improved Error Messages, and Upgrade Tooling
Terraform 0.12 release includes updates to the HCL, such as first-class expression syntax, value types, loops, dynamic blocks, and conditional expression improvements. Error messages now contain additional context, and the output to a terraform plan now renders in a more readable format. Terraform 0.12 isn't 100% backwards compatible, but comes with an upgrade and validation tool.
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C++20 Feature List Now Frozen: Modules, Coroutines, and Concepts are in; Contracts out
The ISO C++ Committee has closed the feature list for the next C++ standard, dubbed C++20, scheduled to be published by February 2020. C++20 will be a significant revision of C++, bringing modules, coroutines, and concepts, among its major new features.
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How Shopify Migrated to a Modular Monolith
Kirsten Westeinde, senior engineer at Shopify, discussed the evolution of Shopify into a modular monolith at Shopify Unite 2019. This included using the design payoff line to decide when to make this change, how it was achieved, and also why microservices were ruled out as a target architecture.
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Docker Enterprise 3.0 Brings Docker Kubernetes Services, New Lifecycle Automation Tools, and More
Docker has announced Docker Enterprise 3.0 GA. This version brings Docker Kubernetes Services (DKS), new lifecycle automation tools for automating deployment of containers and Kubernetes, security enhancements, and more.
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Microsoft Releases PowerApps Portals Preview, a Low-Code Customer Portal Solution
In a recent blog post, Microsoft announced PowerApps Portals in preview, a low-code solution for building responsive customer portals. PowerApps Portals is the successor of Dynamics 365 Portals, which generally required developers to use complex web templates. Using PowerApps Portals, people familiar with Microsoft PowerApps can transition those skills into building customer-facing portals.