• Article

February 2018

Volume 33 Number 2

Essential .NET - C\# 8.0 and Nullable Reference Types

[Essential .NET]

C# 8.0 and Nullable Reference Types

Mark Michaelis

Despite his love for C#, Mark Michaelis acknowledges it isn’t a perfect language. In particular, its handling of null references types has been problematic since the language’s inception. That issue should be considerably improved in C# 8.0.

 Data Points - Creating Azure Functions That Can Read from Cosmos DB with Almost No CodeColumn

[Data Points]

Creating Azure Functions That Can Read from Cosmos DB with Almost No Code

Julie Lerman

In the third column in this series, Julie Lerman shows you how to create the Azure functions that will respond to a request to retrieve two sets of score data from users playing the CookieBinge game locally and around the world.
Azure - Event-Driven Architecture in the Cloud with Azure Event Grid

[Azure]

Event-Driven Architecture in the Cloud with Azure Event Grid

David Barkol

Event Grid is a new, fully-managed service in Azure that unlocks unique and new messaging patterns in the cloud and beyond. The article explains the fundamentals of Azure Event Grid, how it fits into the serverless landscape, and unleashes a new set of possibilities for applications and services.

 Artificially Intelligent - Using Jupyter NotebooksColumn

[Artificially Intelligent]

Using Jupyter Notebooks

Frank La

Jupyter Notebooks provide an interactive scratch pad for developers and data scientists to explore and experiment with. Frank La Vigne explores this tool and how it can be used to create and share documents that contain live code, visualizations and text.
Machine Learning - Deep Neural Network Classifiers Using CNTK

[Machine Learning]

Deep Neural Network Classifiers Using CNTK

James McCaffrey

The Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit library is a powerful set of functions that allows you to create machine learning prediction systems. In this article James McCaffrey explains how to use CNTK to make a deep neural network classifier.

 Test Run - Thompson Sampling Using C\#Column

[Test Run]

Thompson Sampling Using C#

James McCaffrey

Thompson sampling is a clever algorithm that can help you estimate the relative effectiveness of a number of different possible choices. James McCaffrey explains how it works.
C\# - Writing Native Mobile Apps Using a Customizable Scripting Language

[C#]

Writing Native Mobile Apps Using a Customizable Scripting Language

Vassili Kaplan

Vassili Kaplan discovered that a custom, and customizable, scripting language can provide great advantages for creating cross-platform mobile apps. In this article he shows you how to use his Customizable Scripting in C# to program for mobile devices.

 Don't Get Me Started - Why Software Still SucksColumn

[Don't Get Me Started]

Why Software Still Sucks

David Platt

Ten years after he published his popular book "Why Software Sucks," David Platt takes a look around to find that bad software is still a serious problem.
Editor's Note - Groundhog DayColumn

[Editor's Note]

Groundhog Day

Michael Desmond

February may be the shortest month, but it’s the best time of the year for weather-predicting rodents. Columnists at MSDN Magazine decide to join the fun with some mid-winter predictions of their own.