.NET Rocks!

So what does a web development stack look like today? Carl and Richard talk to Dan Wahlin about his explorations with the new ASP.NET vNext stack, checking out Angular2 (as opposed to the separately developed Angular1) and getting into using containers for development. Containers take virtual machines to the next level, with lower resource requirements and detailed manifests. As Dan points out, container technology comes after the configuration-as-code movement, and is a key part of the container approach. The focus is on Docker, but there are other container solutions out there that are well worth exploring!

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It's been on the news, but do you really understand what happened with the Ashley Madison hack? Carl and Richard talk to Troy Hunt about his experiences around his web site Have I Been Pwned and how the Ashley Madison hack blew up his traffic and made him think deeply about privacy. You may not care for the company, but you can't deny the significance of a multi-million dollar business blown up by hackers. Digital security is no joke - a failure can cost millions and destroy lives.

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Universal Apps are all about XAML! Carl and Richard talk to the original XAML believer, Billy Hollis, about the new Universal App model and its focus on XAML. As Billy says, both Windows 10 and Office 2016 are using XAML now, so it's not going away. But first a quick digression on Windows Phone and Android - is the Universal App model going to save Windows Phone? Or should it all be Android in the end anyway? The conversation also ranges over some of the new opportunities coming in the future, like HoloLens, and the importance of XAML in that space as well. There has never been a better time to dive into this tech!

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Heard of NativeScript? Carl and Richard talk to Sam Basu from Telerik about NativeScript, a dev stack using JavaScript to build native mobile applications. Sam describes how NativeScript is different from Cordova, since it doesn't use HTML or a runtime that essentially hosts a browser - instead it has a custom UI markup language that is rather similar to XAML and compiles into native code on iOS and Android (Windows Phone coming soon). So if you like working in Javascript but want native performance, you should take a look at NativeScript!

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Ci with SQL Server? Are you crazy? Carl and Richard talk to Ike Ellis about what it takes to get databases changes happening as smoothly as application changes. Really! Ike talks about the concept of database lifecycle management and how it is orthogonal to application lifecycle management. The tricky bit is managing the data! And to help with that, Ike discusses a great tool chain of source code management, testing and deployment tools that work with databases like SQL Server and integrate into your usual development lifecycle toolchain as well. This is some next level DevOps thinking!

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So what about building apps with Unity 3D? Carl and Richard talk to Brice Fernandes about what it takes to build using this cross-platform 3D framework. Brice talks about the important elements of gaming, including the art, user experience and game play itself. You need all three to some degree, great games do all of them well. The conversation digs into the variety of styles of games and the strengths and weaknesses of Unity in those different roles. Could you build things other than games in Unity? Yes, but would you want to?

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Ready to React? Carl and Richard talk to Cory House about his experiences building applications using Facebook's React library. The conversation digs into the philosophical differences to web page design that React is focused on - and how they upset a lot of folks! Cory describes React as an approach for building UI components, which means combining HTML, Javascript and even CSS together! He also digs into the challenges of assembling the right tool stack - React is not an all-in-one library, you have some choices to make. The conversation also digs into Flux and it's alternatives as approaches to your overall web page architecture. Lots of options!

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So what's it like to build web apps with ASP.NET 5? Carl and Richard talk to Rick Strahl about his experiences with the rapidly evolving open source project that is ASP.NET today. As Rick says, it might be called a beta, but it is acting more like an alpha at this point - new features and breaking changes are occurring regularly as the toolset develops. On the plus side is the server-side cross-platform of running on Linux and OSX, plus a design that is far more focused on what modern web development looks like. The original ASP.NET is nearly fifteen years old, this is an awesome update!

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Are you a social developer? Carl and Richard talk to Jeremy Clark about his experiences trying to draw developers at events out of their shells. In the end, especially at an event, people want to talk - you just have to get the conversation started. The conversation turns to skills that can benefit your career, including public speaking and writing. Being able to communicate effectively in various forms can help your whole team be more productive by getting people on the same page of an idea. It's a skill like any other, and well worth cultivating!

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Web development is moving fast, and John Papa is in the race! Carl and Richard talk to John about his current views on Angular and other SPA frameworks - coming to Anglebrackets this fall! The conversation dives into the inevitable comparisons between Angular, Aurelia and others - but there is no one right way. Then John talks about the new Visual Studio Code, which really hasn't got much to do with Visual Studio at all - it's an editor, rather than an IDE. This leads to a conversation about development work styles in general - do you like having everything all in one place in the form of Visual Studio, or happier with a more roll-your-own solution with separate editors, debuggers, etc. So many choices for development today!

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