Just Five Mins!

Well now, who would have thought a guest episode! 

My very good friend Tim Abell (podcast "software should be free") has kindly created a Just Five Mins about asdf.. not just the handy set of keys on your keyboard!  Use asdf to "Manage multiple runtime versions with a single CLI tool".  I could have done with this a week or two back!

Even though poor old Tim was suffering a bit, his audio still sounds better than mine! :)

I nice easy way to be able to change versions - especially for dotnet and node for myself!

Well, more databases! but this one has a few tricks up its sleave!

In the realm of things like Firebase, Supabase etc. Pocketbase aims to offer a similar feature set but is open source and deploys as one file... 

Pocketbase doesn't offer any hosting like Firebase/Supabase, so you can use this within your own environment/cloud hosted server.  Can be used within Linux/Windows/Mac (both x64 and ARM).

Take a listen.  I think this is a useful set of tools if you need to build something more than just a datastore app!

Oh! and of course, many thanks to this video for bringing Pocketbase to light! (388) PocketBase... The Ultimate Side-Hustle Backend? - YouTube

Nearly at the end of 2022... LTS! Reason to think carefully about using an LTS (long term support) version of software!

Yeah, you bet!  We all know the AI world is changing things for us if we like it or not.

ChatGPT is coming... and I don't think we can stop it!  we can embrace it in the right way of course.

Old news now, but worth a listen honest!

From a developers perspective, check this video out:

(320) ChatGPT can write better code than me - YouTube

Okay, where to start!  Well, couple of episodes back I talked about how Docker are previewing Docker with WASM (Web Assembly).  So WASM became popular from Blazor the Microsoft tech to essentially bring compiled .NET code into the browser (and lots of other technologies can be used with WASM of course!).

Seems WASM, and WASI, are moving from just browser based to other worlds including the server/cloud.

This JFM talks about Fermyon who have something called SPIN to create event driven microservices using WASM (instead of say Docker containers).  They also have a cloud offering which seems more compact/faster than possibly Docker containers (i.e. the current container tech that is!).

Link to the Fermyon article here: Fermyon Built a WebAssembly Cloud to Push Serverless Microservices Beyond Containers (infoq.com)

Also., what is WASI: Wasm, WASI, Wagi: What are they? | Fermyon Technologies (@FermyonTech)

Link to the Fermyon cloud here: Fermyon Cloud | Fermyon Developer

And finally, the GitHub Repo for Fermyon SPIN here: fermyon/spin: Spin is an open source framework for building and running fast, secure, and composable cloud microservices with WebAssembly (github.com)

A very cool, probably mis-understood, nugget this time around!

Natively calling REST based (actually HTTP based, since you can call GraphQL too!) within Azure SQL database!  

I have done something similar years ago using OLE style SQL coding, but this felt a little clunky and goodness knows what the performance issues might have been!

This is native.. this is Azure SQL Database so, given the managed nature of the "server" within Azure, it feels/sounds like it has stability.  This is only public preview.. I had seen an early adopter version but it didn't really sink in..

Take a look at the blog post from Davide Mauri.. at first it might not click what you can do.. but when you think of Event Grid/Hub and Azure functions to name a couple, the landscape really opens up!

Azure SQL Database External REST Endpoints Integration Public Preview - Azure SQL Devs’ Corner (microsoft.com)

Well can you believe I had an episode about Hasura all the way back 2+ years ago! even though it was Episode 14 ;)

This is a revisit.  In my case, Hasura didn't have full MS-SQL support back then, which is where I live mostly, but it does now! along with MongoDB, Postgres to name just a few.

Worth checking out: Instant GraphQL APIs on your data | Built-in Authz & Caching (hasura.io)

Well, Docker isn't new of course but it has evolved over the years.  Now we are seeing Docker WASM - Web Assembly.  But why does this matter?

Take a listen!

Further information here:

Why Containers and WebAssembly Work Well Together - Docker

Who needs an ARMy of ARM chips? !!

This episode is all about "project Volterra" or Windows Dev Kit 2023 - an ARM based hardware offering from Microsoft that packs a punch!

Seems everything is going ARM based these days, so why not join in!

More info here:

Available today: Windows Dev Kit 2023 aka Project Volterra - Windows Developer Blog

For those who are older enough to remember, this could be counter for this: (84) Steve Ballmer DEVELOPERS - YouTube  and yes kids, this is how Microsoft attracted.. you guessed it, "developers" :)

So, as part of my attending "Microsoft Anonymous" sessions, this episode is all about LINUX, LINUX, LINUX!  well, as much as I can pack into about 5 minutes!

I do like the feeling of being able to develop on Windows, Mac and now Linux - I realise people have been doing this for years of course!