Issue: 2023 - March/April

Rod talks about some of the perils and foibles of being a software engineer.

Learn why the dev tools in Chrome are still the ones that Sahil uses. Read how to use code folding, locate any file (Ctrl-p), Prettify, the snippet editor, live expressions, and more.

Learn how to use the GetSchema() method on the DbConnection class to retrieve tables, views, columns, index, stored procedures, and more from any database system. Create an instance of the SqlConnection or OracleConnection, or your own provider's implementation of the DbConnection class, and pass a valid connection string to the constructor to use the GetSchema() method.

Great updates for EF Core 7 include explicit methods FromSqlRaw and FromSqlInterpolated. The SqlQuery method lets you pass in a raw SQL query to get scalar data directly from the database. And many more cool features. Read about them in Julie article.

If you’re already familiar with ASP.NET Web Forms, you can apply your existing skillset to use Razor Pages instead. Shawn's overview of Razor Pages provides a straightforward migration path for Web Forms developers.

In this article, author Rod Paddock introduces Snowflake, a cloud-based SQL database that offers a range of capabilities for developers. Paddock discusses the features of Snowflake, such as its cloud-agnostic nature, support for querying JSON data, and secure data sharing capabilities. He explains how Snowflake's unique architecture allows for "infinite" computing through its warehouse concept and provides insights into using Snowsight, the web-based application for mana...ging Snowflake infrastructure. Rod also discusses building a data loading pipeline, securing data with masking, and sharing data with other Snowflake users. He concludes by highlighting the power and user-friendly nature of Snowflake as a game-changing product.See More

In this article, Alexander Pirker discusses the importance of security in Kubernetes clusters. He explains that while Kubernetes provides flexibility and ease of use, there are security considerations that need to be addressed. Pirker covers various aspects of Kubernetes security, including securing service account tokens, making the root file system of containers read-only, isolating network traffic among namespaces, avoiding hostPath mounts, protecting sensitive inform...ation in ConfigMaps, encrypting secrets, and properly configuring RBAC. He emphasizes the need for operators to be aware of these security considerations and implement best practices to protect their Kubernetes clusters.See More

If you need to be able to create event-driven applications quickly and efficiently, Joydip suggests exploring Distributed Application Runtime (Dapr).

Despite our best efforts, relatively few software development projects are a raging success. Jeffrey talks about the various roles - even non-technical ones - that every project should have if there’s any hope of success.

This article reflects on the importance of responsibility in software development, in light of recent events such as Southwest Airlines and the FAA. It draws on the assertion of Ted Neward, that responsibility is the cornerstone of software development, and looks at how this relates to quality and the concept of technical debt.