Building Applications with the Modern SQL Using AI and Microsoft Fabric

Devs surely do still love their SQL, but Microsoft executives are touting what they call "modern SQL" for building applications using the latest and greatest data technologies.

So what are those technologies that provide a new take on your beloved and familiar SQL? You start off with, of course, AI, specifically generative AI -- Copilots at Microsoft -- that has transformed software development along with the rest of IT. Then, being firmly in the Microsoft development camp, you add Microsoft Fabric, which is an end-to-end analytics/data platform that encompasses data movement, processing, ingestion, transformation, real-time event routing and report building.

Posted by David Ramel on 07/08/20240 comments

Getting Started with GitHub Copilot Chat

Hey Y'all! VSLive @ Microsoft HQ is happening the first week of August. While I won't be there, my good friend Brian Randell will, and he has a couple of Copilot sessions you won't want to miss. One of the things I'm betting will come up in those sessions is GitHub Copilot Chat.

Posted by Mickey Gousset on 06/24/20240 comments

Monorepos: Are They a Good Thing?

In the world of software development, managing source code effectively is crucial for the success of projects, especially as they scale. One of the most important decisions teams must make is how to structure their codebase: using a monolithic repository (monorepo) or multiple repositories (multirepo).

This article explores the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a monorepo, with a focus on how platforms like GitHub and Azure DevOps support this model.

Posted by Mickey Gousset on 05/23/20240 comments

Getting a Grip on Dependency Injection

.NET supports the Dependency Injection (DI) software design pattern, which Microsoft describes as a technique for achieving Inversion of Control (IoC) between classes and their dependencies, such that components receive their dependencies from an external source (usually a framework or container), allowing the caller to provide necessary dependencies rather than the component creating them internally.

Posted by David Ramel on 05/21/20240 comments

How To Harness AI from the Command Line

Back in January, I predicted this would be the year of AI. In February I gave you an introduction to GitHub Copilot. Now, with the general availability release of GitHub Copilot in the CLI, you can have all the power of AI and GitHub Copilot while never having to leave the safety of your command line.

Posted by Mickey Gousset on 04/25/20240 comments

Upgrade Your Git Game in Visual Studio 2022

It only takes 20 minutes to upgrade your Git game in Visual Studio 2022, and Jessie Houghton, Visual Studio Program Manager at Microsoft, will show you how at the August 5-9 Visual Studio Live! developer conference being held at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

Posted by David Ramel on 04/18/20240 comments

Managing Dependencies in Your Codebase: Top Tools and Best Practices

As software projects get more complex, managing dependencies becomes an increasingly critical task for developers. Dependencies, the external packages or libraries that your project relies on, can significantly impact your application's security, maintainability and compatibility. This is particularly true in the .NET ecosystem, where projects often rely on a vast array of NuGet packages.

Posted by Mickey Gousset on 03/26/20240 comments

Busy Developer's Guide to Next-Generation Languages

Remember when TypeScript, or C#, or even C++ was new, and you wished you'd known they were going to "be big" so you could be the person ahead of the curve instead of struggling to catch up to where everybody else seemed to be already?

To help stay ahead of that curve, longtime software development expert Ted Neward takes the time to continually scour the coding landscape -- he actually pores through GitHub repos, for example -- to look for new languages that might not be what you end up using in your day job in 2025, but which could expose and refine the concepts that define the language that will.

Posted by David Ramel on 02/27/20240 comments

Code Faster: 15 Essential Visual Studio Keyboard Shortcuts

This quick reference guide shares 15 must-know shortcuts for improving efficiency and productivity in Visual Studio. Master shortcuts for debugging, refactoring, formatting, searching, and more!

Posted on 02/26/20240 comments

Getting Started with GitHub Copilot

As a small teaser for my upcoming Copilot Engineering Everywhere workshop at VSLive! Las Vegas, I thought I'd give you an introduction to GitHub Copilot.

Posted by Mickey Gousset on 02/23/20240 comments