You’re familiar with at least one AI-assisted development tool; That’s right, the ChatGPT. Its popularity has skyrocketed in the last few months and with good reason.
It is designed to assist users in generating human-like text but it’s been helpful to developers too, as they can leverage ChatGPT to automate certain tasks, generate code snippets, assist in writing documentation, or even prototype conversational interfaces. While ChatGPT is primarily a language model, it can be used in the development process to aid in various aspects of software development.
In SlashData’s 24th edition of State of Developer Nation, we asked developers if they use AI and how. This led to a dedicated chapter on all the new technologies that captivate developers’ imaginations.
The data from the survey suggest that 63% of developers engaged in some aspect of AI-assisted development, making it evident that this technology is rapidly maturing and transforming from a mere trend to a valuable tool.
AI-Assisted Development: A Growing Trend
While overall engagement has experienced a slight decline of 4% over the past year, the nature of developer involvement has undergone a fascinating shift.
More developers are actively working on or learning about AI-assisted development, showing a 6% increase in engagement.
Simultaneously, the number of developers with latent interest has decreased by 6%.
This dynamic suggests that AI-assisted development is maturing and gaining practical applicability in the development landscape.
Generative AI: Unleashing Creative Possibilities
Alongside AI-assisted development, generative AI has emerged as a new and exciting technology.
With 57% of developers actively involved or interested in generative AI, curiosity and excitement abound. While AI-assisted development still leads in adoption at 17%, generative AI projects attract 14% of engaged developers.
The Many Uses of Generative AI
Developers use generative AI in three main ways:
as a helpful tool for their development process
by integrating it into projects through APIs
or even by creating the models themselves.
Ongoing investigations are exploring these usage patterns to uncover more insights into this groundbreaking technology.
Challenges and Opportunities
Although generative AI is gaining high engagement, there are factors that affect its adoption among developers.
Some developers may be hesitant to rely solely on generative models for critical or security-conscious tasks.
However, there is a growing adoption of generative AI for visual assets in software development, which reduces the risks of errors and security vulnerabilities.
Overcoming Challenges
Developers who work on generative AI models face the challenge of needing a large amount of training data.
However, certain tools offer the ability to fine-tune pre-trained models for specific tasks, making this challenge easier to overcome. As developers become more familiar with assistive and generative AI technologies, we can expect a surge in their adoption, leading to innovation and creativity.
Leadership’s Role
Interestingly, leaders in C-suite and other leadership positions show higher engagement rates with emerging technologies.
About 49% and 50% of those who approve tool expenses or budgets are actively involved in AI-assisted development.
This trend suggests that the revolution in AI-assisted development is driven by leaders who recognize its potential.
Looking Ahead: The Changing Landscape:
When we take a broader view, we see a cyclical pattern in the adoption and interest in emerging technologies. Developer interest has dropped by 5% overall, while adoption has increased by 4 percentage points.
This contrast indicates a dynamic shift in developer preferences, marking a change from previous trends.
In summary, AI-assisted development is rapidly evolving and attracting developers’ attention. Generative AI opens up exciting possibilities, and leadership engagement plays a crucial role in driving its growth. Cryptocurrencies continue to be intriguing, and the landscape of emerging technologies is constantly shifting.
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The rest of the technologies that capture the developers’ imagination
It’s, no doubt, one of the fastest moving tech eras in the history of technology. From artificial intelligence and machine learning to blockchain and virtual reality, emerging technologies are transforming entire industries and redefining the way we interact with the world around us.
For software developers , keeping up with the latest technologies has never been more crucial. By continually testing your knowledge and understanding of these technologies, you can utilize those capabilities to their greatest potential, making your life simpler, faster and more efficient. But where do you start?
Our brand-new Developer Nation survey is now open for developers who’d like to test their standing with the latest technologies and leave their mark in shaping the future of developer space. To help you get a better understanding of who we are, what we do and what it feels like to be a part of our developer community, we’ve also compared the Developer Nation Survey with the surveys offered by other developer communities, like Stack Overflow, across a variety of parameters to help you make the choice for yourself.
Now, read on and unleash the incredible power of your voice!
Developer Nation Survey: Your Voice Matters
Developer Nation survey is the leading research programme that focuses on capturing and analyzing the trends in the developer ecosystem by inviting the participation of developers within the Web, Mobile, Desktop, Cloud, DevOps, Industrial IoT & Consumer Electronics, AR/VR, Apps/extensions for 3rd party ecosystems, Games, Machine Learning & AI, and Data Science fields. Some of the questions we ask revolve around your favourite tools and platforms, the projects you’re currently working on, your perspective on the software development cycle, and more.
Why does your voice matter? Because it helps shed light on the challenges, trends, and opportunities within the developer community. With developers being the backbone of technological advancements and innovation, your opinion can directly influence the tools, programming languages, and industry standards of tomorrow.
By participating in the Developer Nation Survey, you’ll be able to not only gain valuable insights and learn about the latest trends, but also have a chance to share your voice and ensure that your unique perspective is considered in shaping the future of software development.
Comparing Prominent Developer Surveys
While these surveys focus on grasping the essence and behaviors of the developer community, they offer unique perspectives and insights across different dimensions, such as location, prizes, developer communities, loyalty programs, and average reach.
Focus point
The Developer Nation Survey offers a global perspective, covering a wide range of topics and trends that impact developers worldwide. It emphasizes inclusivity and collaboration, ensuring that diverse voices and experiences are represented in shaping the future of software development. On the other hand, the Stack Overflow Developer Survey and Offerzen’s State of the European Software Developer Nation Survey have a narrower focus, and, therefore, offer localized insights and shed light on the challenges and opportunities within particular regions.
To reach a wider and more diverse audience, we also translate our Developer Nation surveys in 10 languages and make it available in 165+ countries, making it accessible and convenient for people who are not native English speakers.
Loyalty program
With the mission of helping developers be their best selves, we place great importance on giving back to our community by sharing valuable insights and data, helping them set the right foundations for their careers, discover opportunities for professional growth and reward them for active participation with our loyalty program. Give us your feedback, participate in our survey production process or complete the survey to gather points, unlock special benefits and win prizes!
Prizes
We understand that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. As a result, we try to bring in many exciting rewards which can be useful, practical and high-tech. Compared with other communities, we offer a wide range of different prizes and here’s what you can get your hands on by taking part in our Developer Nation survey: cards and vouchers towards your desktop setup, a MacBook Pro13 M2, an Asus ZenBook13, annual or monthly licenses, courses credits to learn something new, and many more. Plus, everyone who completes the survey will get a free virtual goody bag with access to free resources. So, why not take your chance to get something you always wanted?
Giving back to the community
We make recurring donations to the charity of your choice. For each qualified survey response we donate USD $0.10 to different charities and organizations supported by our developer community. Our goal is to reach USD $1,700 in donations. Take the survey, pick a charity to support, and help us make a difference!
What we do with the data
We protect your privacy by anonymising all your answers. Those results are then available in the free State of the Developer Nation 25th Edition report, which you can be the first one to have access to by taking our survey! If you’re interested in the insights we offer in our reports, check out the previous editions here.
We exchange those insights regarding emerging trends among developers to helpindividuals responsible for developing tools and platforms in understanding the genuine needs of software creators. Our research remains independent, meaning that our surveys and data are not owned by any vendor, community, or other affiliated partner.
As for our survey methodology, we keep it transparent by making our sampling and analysis methods available in all our reports on developernation.net, free to download for all developers.
With third-party APIs, developers can leverage the power of external expertise to enhance the functionality of their applications. However, to ensure success, they must carefully evaluate the quality of APIs before incorporating them into their applications. This chapter aims to investigate the key characteristics that make third-party APIs high-quality, according to developers.
In recent years, application programming interfaces (APIs) have become a key part of modern software development. APIs act as intermediaries that facilitate communication between different applications through established protocols and definitions. By using APIs, developers can leverage the power of other applications without needing custom integrations. In turn, this allows them to focus more on building the core parts of their applications and less on recreating features that already exist or are not feasible.
With this in mind, it is unsurprising that almost all developers (89%) report using APIs in their projects. According to our data, 74% of developers use third-party APIs while 15% state that they only use private or internal APIs. Using private/internal APIs makes it easier for developers to link their in-house applications together and ensures that only authorised personnel can access their systems and internal information. On the other hand, using third-party offerings gives them access to external expertise but introduces additional dependencies that can affect their projects.
74% of developers use third-party APIs
With so many developers relying on third-party APIs to expand the scope of their applications, modern services are becoming increasingly more likely to offer public APIs. However, not all APIs are created equal. Just as high-quality APIs can enhance the capabilities of a given application, adopting a low-quality API can be detrimental to its success. Implementing low-quality solutions can create a wide range of issues such as poor performance, negative user experience, and security vulnerabilities. Therefore, developers must carefully evaluate the quality of APIs before incorporating them into their applications.
In the latest edition of our global developer survey, we asked developers who use third-party APIs to identify the most important characteristics of high-quality API offerings. Our results indicate that developers consider security, documentation and sample code, reliability, ease of use, and performance to be the most important characteristics of high-quality APIs. These five qualities separate themselves from the rest as the core pillars of strength developers look for when considering third-party APIs. In fact, 89% of those who use third-party APIs mention at least one of these characteristics in association with high-quality APIs.
Security is the most important factor in evaluating the quality of third-party APIs, according to 42% of developers. Using third-party offerings opens up a line of communication with external services that can expose their users to unauthorised access to sensitive data and other security risks. To keep up with the rapidly evolving landscape of threats, developers and modern businesses must ensure that the APIs they use are secure to protect their assets.
Developers consider security to be the most important attribute of a high-quality API
Having access to clear documentation and sample code can make it substantially easier for developers to incorporate APIs into their applications. Our data suggest that 39% of developers consider documentation and sample code to be among the most important qualities in third-party APIs.
These features allow developers to quickly understand the capabilities and limitations that a given API brings and make it easier for them to get started. This goes hand in hand with ease of use, which is mentioned by 37% of developers who use third-party APIs.
On the other end of the spectrum, reliability (38%) and performance (36%) of third-party APIs can directly impact the success of a given project. If an API proves to be unreliable, it can lead to issues ranging from minor errors to system failures and data breaches.
On the other hand, reliable APIs help developers minimise the risk of something going wrong and ensure the highest chances of success in their projects. Similarly, applications can only perform as well as the APIs they use.
Therefore, it is essential for APIs to be fast and capable of handling high volumes of requests to be used in modern applications.
Those who are new to the field of software development tend to work on less challenging problems and can often turn to their peers and mentors for support. As such, they are the least likely (20%) to cite documentation and sample code as an important characteristic of a high-quality API and tend to prioritise other features.
However, as they gain expertise and take on more complex projects, developers begin to appreciate the benefits that clear documentation and sample code bring to the table. In fact, 65% of developers with 16+ years of experience mention documentation and sample code among the most important characteristics of high-quality third-party APIs, surpassing even security (51%).
Highly experienced developers value API documentation and sample code significantly more than beginners
With a greater reliance on self-guided learning, experienced developers become less likely to focus on the community when evaluating the quality of third-party APIs. However, technical issues can arise regardless of experience and may be difficult to resolve or diagnose without expert-level knowledge. In turn, technical support appears to retain its above-average importance for all but the most experienced developers.
With more years of experience, developers gain a deeper understanding of what is essential for their projects. For some, performance may be critical, while others may focus more on ease of use. By focusing on the right characteristics of third-party APIs, developers can enhance the functionality of their applications and deliver better products.
Embedded software refers to computer programs designed to perform specific functions in systems or on hardware devices that are not traditionally considered personal computers. Embedded software is found in various electronic items and plays a critical role in the functioning of modern-day technology. These necessary systems are found in simpler appliances, such as thermostats and security cameras, as well as more complex systems like medical equipment, point of sale (bank card) terminals, automobiles, and aeroplanes.
Embedded software developers are traditionally one of the smallest software development groups. As of Q1 2023, we at SlashData estimate that developers self-identifying as embedded developers comprise only around 5% of developers worldwide, a proportion that has been relatively stable for the last two years. Despite embedded developers’ modest community size, they can be found across the globe, with the largest two population clusters being North America and Western Europe – with 18% of embedded software developers in each of the respective regions. The next highest regional group is the Middle East and Africa, which collectively accounts for 15%.
Analysing data collected from more than 25,000 developers working in 160+ countries, we delve into the lives of embedded software developers. These developers are responsible for how humans interface with many critical technologies. Hence, understanding the landscape of those building and developing embedded systems can offer salient insight into industry trends and orient companies and developers alike as to where the field is heading.
Embedded systems and data processing
In 2022 we noted an almost 100% increase in the number of embedded developers who describe data science or data analysis as a part of their role compared to 2021. In our most recent global developer survey, around a third of embedded software developers described their role as having a data science or data analysis component.
Data processing and analysis are becoming more intertwined with embedded systems. One contributing factor is the growth in the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Embedded software is an essential operating component of IoT devices, and as the number of IoT devices continues to multiply, managing, processing, and understanding the vast amounts of data accompanying this growth is a key challenge. Many embedded system developers appear to have recognised this trend and either adapted their roles or had their roles adapted for them to include this necessary data analysis and handling component.
What are embedded developers working on, and what markets are they targeting?
In order to better understand the embedded developer landscape, we asked developers working in this field to describe the projects they had worked on in the last six months. We find that the most common embedded software project description is “network-connected”, mentioned by 41% of developers, or “internet-connected” (36%). Both categories are fundamental to IoT devices.
Furthermore, 35% of embedded software developers stated they had worked on projects that processed data, while 30% stated their projects involved data storage. This project reporting again highlights the importance of data management in the embedded software development field and reinforces the importance of data analysis and processing as part of an embedded developer’s tool kit.
“23% of embedded developers have recently worked on projects that involved signal processing. They have, on average, 24% more experience compared to embedded developers working on other projects”
Around a third of the projects embedded software developers worked on recently involved sensor or monitoring devices. Meanwhile, 23% of embedded developers have recently worked on projects that involved signal processing – audio, video, etc. As these types of technologies that interface with their local environment continue to evolve, they will increasingly shape how humans interact with devices and their surroundings.
Embedded developers working on sensors and monitoring and signal processing technologies have, on average, 24% more software development experience than embedded developers working on other projects (an average of 5.8 years vs 7.6 years). Embedded technologies that incorporate signal processing require complex algorithms that can be computationally intensive and require specialised knowledge. This increased knowledge requirement is reflected in the additional software development experience embedded developers working with these technologies have.
In addition to being slightly more experienced, embedded developers working on sensory projects utilise the C programming language significantly more than other embedded developers. Embedded developers working on sensory projects use the C language more than half the time, 54%, compared to 40% of other embedded developers. We believe the inflated use of C here is likely due to its efficiency and popularity in the field of signal processing data.
Where is embedded software used?
Embedded software is utilised in an array of devices and for various applications. Hence, the markets that embedded software developers target are as diverse as the features the embedded software provides. We find that the most popular market is smart home appliances, targeted by 30% of embedded developers. As many IoT devices are increasingly sought after and can be found in the home – refrigerators, washing machines, doorbell cameras, etc. – this category’s lead aligns with our market observations.
“30% of embedded software developers are targeting smart home appliances – where many IoT devices are traditionally found”
Robotics comes in second place, with 24% of embedded developers reporting that they are targeting this market with their projects. The field of robotics heavily relies on embedded software to control movement, sensors, and environmental information processing – all crucial components for a robot’s functionality. As technology continues to advance, the field of robotics and embedded software will become even more intertwined in the development of intelligent systems that can be of benefit to various commercial markets such as manufacturing, transportation, and defence.
Embedded software developers are at the forefront of how humans interface with many technologies. With the increasing growth in the number of IoT devices, an increased number of devices will be connected to the internet and through networks and require embedded software to operate. This will necessitate embedded software developers to handle new demands in their workflow. We expect that these increasing expectations to come from both companies and consumers – such as the ability to process and analyse data and increased demand for device internet/network connectivity in IoT, respectively – will continue to push embedded developers to further broaden their skillset to be successful in keeping up with market requirements.
“Developers who stop learning get left behind. However, the ones that grow and expand with trends always eat well.”
– Kudzai Manditereza
The technology landscape is evolving, with the Internet of Things (IoT) leading the charge. IoT is transforming the way we live and work, with billions of devices generating massive amounts of data. As a software developer, it is essential to stay on top of this trend and understand the opportunities and challenges presented by this new technology.
In this three-part series, we will breakdown IoT, MQTT, which is the defacto standard protocol powering IoT, and wrap the series up with a practical step-by-step demonstration you can follow to try IoT yourself.
If we do our job right, at the end of this first article you will be inspired to dive deeper into IoT, and see how you can add it to your arsenal of skills. At minimun, you will be able to define IoT fundamentals, understand its components and the impact this has on software development. Additionally, we will explore the potential benefits and the challenges you may face when working with this technology.
Demystifying IoT: A Simple Definition (for Software Developers)
IoT can be a complex and often confusing topic, but it doesn’t have to be. At its core, IoT refers to the network of physical objects that are connected to the internet and can exchange data with one another. These objects, or “things,” can be anything from household appliances and wearables to industrial machinery and smart city infrastructure.
To understand IoT, it’s important to break it down into its components. An IoT system typically consists of three main components: sensors, connectivity, and data analytics.
Sensors
Sensors are crucial in IoT systems; they serve as the primary data collection points. They bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds by converting real-world information such as temperature, humidity, and motion into digital information. Sensors enable IoT systems to monitor, measure, and respond to various parameters by detecting changes in the environment or devices.
Connectivity
As stated, the primary goal of data collection from sensor devices is to share the data with other devices and data analytics applications in the network. Connectivity is the communication infrastructure that allows these devices and applications to communicate and exchange information, e.g, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
In addition, for devices to make sense of the shared information, they must use a standard communication protocol. Examples of IoT communication protocols include HTTP(S), which most software developers already use, AMQP, CoAP, and MQTT, which has become the defacto IoT standard protocol. We discuss MQTT in detail in Part 2 of this series.
Data analytics
Data analytics platforms, which are usually cloud-hosted, enable the transformation of typically vast amounts of data collected from sensors/devices into valuable information and actionable insights. The capabilities of Data Analytics platforms range from simple visualization for remote monitoring to identifying patterns, trends, and correlations within the collected data, and advanced machine learning-based use cases.
Application of Internet of Things (IoT)
To give you a sense of what IoT looks like in the real world, below is a list of the use cases in the Commercial, and Industrial sectors.
Smart Retail: IoT can be used to create personalized shopping experiences through digital signage, targeted promotions, and smart shelves that detect low inventory levels.
Building Automation: IoT can enable commercial buildings to become “smart,” with automated lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that respond to occupancy and environmental conditions, improving occupant comfort and reducing energy costs.
Smart Agriculture: IoT can be used to monitor crop conditions, soil health, and weather data, enabling farmers to make data-driven decisions about irrigation, fertilization, and pest control, ultimately increasing crop yields and reducing resource waste.
Wearable Payments: IoT devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers can be integrated with payment systems, enabling users to make contactless payments without the need for physical cards or cash.
Predictive Maintenance in Manufacturing: By collecting and analyzing industrial equipment data, potential issues can be detected early, helping to prevent unexpected equipment failure, reduce downtime, and extend the lifespan of machinery.
Hardware Platforms for IoT Application Development
To start building an IoT application, you will need a device that provides a physical interface to sensors, allows you to write and deploy code to acquire data from those sensors, establish connectivity to the internet, and publish the data for analytics in the cloud.
Device platforms commonly used to develop and prototype IoT applications include Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ESP32, BeagleBone, and others. The selection of an IoT device platform is mostly influenced by each platform’s capabilities for prototyping different features or products. For example, some devices only support WiFi connectivity requiring you to plugin additional hardware for cellular connectivity. Some platforms can host a full operation system for executing multiple general-purpose tasks, while others are built to execute one specific task.
Developing Software for IoT Applications
To develop software for IoT devices, you need to have a good understanding of the hardware and networking technologies involved in IoT. As a developer, there is a good chance you are already familiar with programming languages used in IoT development, such as C, Java, and Python. IoT solutions can be programmed using a variety of languages, depending on the specific needs of the project. Programming languages commonly used in IoT development at different levels of the technology stack include C, Python, Java, JavaScript, NodeJs, and C#:
Similar to other projects, developers should choose a language that is suitable for the hardware and software components of the IoT system, as well as the data analysis and visualization requirements.
Using Software Libraries for IoT App Development
As with any software project, leveraging software libraries can make the process significantly easier and efficient. In IoT, libraries can help manage the following:
Data gathering from common sensors on the market
Controlling common actuators such as motors
Communication protocols,
Data processing
Security features
To use these libraries, developers need to first identify the appropriate ones for their project requirements, such as the protocol stack (e.g., MQTT, CoAP, Zigbee), device platform (e.g., Arduino, ESP32, Raspberry Pi), and cloud services (e.g., AWS IoT, Azure IoT, Google Cloud IoT).
Here’s an example of code in Python that might be used in an IoT system using a Python library for an MQTT Client. The code shows how to connect an IoT device to an MQTT messaging server and subscribes to receive messages of interest that are being sent to the same server by other IoT devices.
import paho.mqtt.client as mqtt # Set up MQTT client client = mqtt.Client() client.connect("broker.hivemq.com", 1883, 60) # Define callback function to handle incoming messages def on_message(client, userdata, message): print("Message received: " + message.payload.decode()) # Subscribe to topic client.subscribe("iot/devices/sensor1") # Start the MQTT client loop client.loop_start() # Continuously listen for incoming messages while True: pass
As previously mentioned, developers can create IoT applications able to interact with physical devices, gather data from sensors, and even automate tasks. IoT development involves a combination of software development, hardware design, and networking, so developers need to be well-versed in all these areas to create effective IoT applications.
IoT Software Development: Similar But Different
The software for IoT differs from traditional software in several ways:
Resource constraints: IoT devices often have limited computing power, memory, and storage compared to traditional computing devices. As a result, IoT software must be designed to use resources efficiently and effectively.
Real-time requirements: Many IoT applications have real-time requirements, meaning that data must be processed and analyzed quickly, often in milliseconds or less. This requires a different approach to software design and development.
Distributed nature: IoT systems often involve many interconnected devices that must work together to accomplish a task. This requires a distributed system architecture and a focus on communication and coordination between devices.
Security: IoT devices connect the internet to the physical world, and security breaches can have life-threatening consequences. Therefore, IoT software must be designed with security in mind, including data encryption, access control, and secure communication protocols.
Heterogeneous environment: IoT devices can run on a variety of hardware and software platforms, which can make software development and deployment more complex. Developers must be able to work with a wide range of platforms and technologies.
Understanding these differences, as well as IoT components, allows you to leverage each of their powers and create innovative and impactful applications that improve people’s lives and transform entire industries.
An example of a possible career path in IoT is IoT Engineer. An IoT engineer is a professional who specializes in designing, developing, and maintaining Internet of Things (IoT) systems. They are responsible for creating the software and hardware components of IoT systems and ensuring that they work together seamlessly to achieve the desired results.
Conclusion
Overall, learning about IoT can be challenging, but it’s also gratifying. By following these steps and staying dedicated to your learning journey, you can develop the skills and knowledge you need to succeed in this exciting field.
We encourage software developers to explore IoT and take advantage of its new opportunities. By collaborating with other experts in the field, leveraging open-source technologies, and continuously learning new skills, you can make a significant impact in the world of IoT and contribute to building a more connected and sustainable future.
So what are you waiting for? Start exploring IoT today and unleash your potential as a software developer!
Now that you know all about IoT, in part two of this series we are going to introduce you to MQTT, a technology that has become the defacto standard of data movement in IoT with applications spanning from Facebook Messenger, Connected Cars, Connected Factories, Wearables, and Home Automation etc.
The term Enterprise Developer has been showing up quite frequently over the past few years in Developer Nation and other programming communities. In our experience, this term can have slightly varied meanings, but it often relates to the Developers working in big teams/organisations, supporting enterprise-grade software development.
To shape a more accurate definition and learn more about Enterprise Developers’ roles, responsibilities, and challenges, we decided to ask them directly. Hence, starting this new series of blog Interviews at Developer Nation, talking with Enterprise Developers, giving our community more clarity about their work and how it differs from a startup environment.
The first interviewee in this series has requested us to keep their identity anonymous; hence respecting their privacy, we will call them Dev A.
Ayan: Can you briefly describe your job as an Enterprise Software Developer
Dev A: I work as a Software Developer at an investment firm, my work revolves around writing tools and data pipelines that help traders/operations and also data pipelines that run during and pre/post trading.
Dev A has briefly described their work as building tools and data pipelines that help investors trade on the platform.
A data pipeline is a function that processes raw data from various data sources and then posts it to a data warehouse for further analysis.
Ayan: What are some of the challenges and benefits of working at a large company compared to a startup?
Dev A: Challenges – a lot of existing infra to go through and gain understanding on. Slow review and deployment process, lot of stakeholders.
Benefits – Learn about processes, scalable solutions, how large infra is maintained. You get a hang of good practices.
Processes make it easier for developers to work and support each other in a big team setup. However, these processes can also sometimes become bottlenecks when new features of patches in the code need to be shipped to the production. As Dev A mentioned, the review and deployment process is slow, and many stakeholders are there whose reviews are needed. On the good side, these processes ensure the quality of the code having it being reviewed by multiple parties. Especially in financial organisations a bug showing an incorrect balance can be a disaster for the product.
Ayan: If you could change one thing about how your organization operates, what would it be?
Dev A: n/a
I asked Dev A if there’s anything they would want to change about the way their organization operates. Apparently there isn’t anything that is rare but good to know.
Ayan: How is AI impacting your day-to-day life? Is there a policy regarding the use of AI tools in your company?
Dev A: Not allowed to enter proprietary information in LLMs. Consider anything entered into ChatGPT is as good as posting it on social media.
AI helps generate quick commands for generic things – e.g bash commands, generate snippets, etc. Stack overflow replacement in a crude way.
From the response, Dev A’s org seems to have a strict policy when it comes to using Large Language Models like ChatGPT with any proprietary information. However, Dev A has been using it to support their development work, like generating Bash commands or code snippets to automate aspects of their job, using it as a Stack Overflow replacement – Very Interesting.
Ayan: How much of your work depends on specific tools, frameworks, programming languages, or cloud providers?
Dev A : Many libraries are inbuilt and maintained in-house, but many are used from outside as well. e.g redis, github etc.
This one is a classic. To be easily maintainable a big software project is usually organised into libraries, which are easier to maintain and reuse in different projects. As Dev A mentioned, many libraries are built and maintained within the org itself. However, like any other software product, they also depend on other work in open source and outside to support the product development.
That was all from this interview, but keep an eye out for more. If you know anyone we should invite for this kind of interview session, please feel free to write me at ayan.pahwa@slashdata.co
The choice of programming language matters deeply to developers because they want to keep their skills up-to-date and marketable. Languages are a beloved subject of debate and the kernels of some of the strongest developer communities. They matter to toolmakers, too, because they want to make sure they provide the most useful SDKs.
It can be challenging to accurately assess how widely a programming language is used. The indices available from sources like Tiobe, Redmonk, Github’s State of the Octoverse, and Stack Overflow’s annual survey are great but offer mostly relative comparisons between languages, providing no sense for the absolute size of each community. These may also be biased geographically or skewed toward certain fields of software development or open-source developers.
The estimates presented here look at software developers using each programming language globally and across all kinds of programmers. They are based on two pieces of data. First is SlashData’s independent estimate of the global number of software developers, which was published for the first time in 2017. According to it, as of Q1 2023, there are 35.6 million active software developers worldwide. Second is the large-scale, low-bias Developer Nation Global survey which reaches tens of thousands of developers every six months. In these surveys, devleopers are consistently asked about their use of programming languages across 13 areas of development. This gives a rich and reliable source of information about who uses each language and in which context.
JavaScript remains the most widely used language.
For the 12th survey in a row, JavaScript continues to take the top spot for programming languages, with 20M active developers worldwide. Notably, JavaScript is still experiencing growth, with a further 2.6M developers joining the community in the last 12 months. JavaScript’s lead is unlikely to be challenged in the near future, as its community has almost 3M more developers than the next closest languages. Moreover, JavaScript’s popularity extends across all software sectors, with at least 20% of developers using it in their projects.
“Close to eight million developers joined the Java community in the last two years.”
In 2020, Python unseated Java as the second most popular programming language, but in Q1 2023, Java returned to just matching Python, with both languages now counting just over 17M developers. Java is one of the most important general-purpose languages, and although it is over two decades old, it has seen incredible growth over the last two years, gaining close to 8M users. This corresponds to the highest growth in absolute terms across all languages. Java’s growth is not only supported by traditional sectors such as cloud and mobile but also by its rising adoption among AR/VR developers, in part due to Android’s popularity as an AR/VR platform.
Despite Java catching up, Python keeps adding new developers. However, in the last 12 months, only 1.3M developers joined the Python community, compared to the massive 5.6M developers who joined between Q1 2021 and Q1 2022. A major driver of Python’s growth was the rise of data science and machine learning, where 70% of developers involved were using Python in Q1 2022. However, this has decreased to 60% in Q1 2023, with other languages, such as Rust, Java, and Mathematica, receiving small increases and likely reducing Python’s growth.
The group of major, well-established languages is completed with C/C++ (13.3M), C# (11.2M), and PHP (8.8M). PHP has seen the second-slowest growth rate over the last 12 months, growing just 11% and adding 0.9M developers to its community. PHP is a common choice for backend and web developers but has seen decreasing popularity.
PHP was used by almost 30% of all developers in Q3 2020 but by 25% of all developers in Q1 2023. This decrease in popularity is particularly apparent amongst web developers, for whom it has gone from the second most popular language in Q3 2021 (34%) to the fourth most popular language (25%) in Q1 2023, behind JavaScript, Python, and Java. Despite PHP 8 addressing many of the concerns developers had expressed about PHP, perceptions of it being insecure or outdated may persist.
C and C++ are core languages in embedded and IoT projects, for both on-device and application-level coding, but also in desktop development, a sector that accounts for almost 45% of all developers. On the other hand, C# has maintained its position as one of the most popular languages for games and desktop applications. Overall, C/C++ added 2.3M net new developers in the last year, while C# added 1.4M over the same period.
Kotlin’s growth is beginning to slow
In previous editions of this report, Kotlin and Rust were identified as two of the fastest-growing language communities. If Kotlin’s growth continues, it will soon overtake PHP and join the ranks of the most popular languages. Kotlin’s growth has been largely attributed to Google’s decision in 2019 to make it the preferred language for Android development. It is currently used by 19% of mobile developers and is the third most popular language in the space. However, Kotlin may be showing signs of slowing its exceptional growth. Kotlin now has a community of more than 5.3M developers and has added more than 2.5M developers in the last two years. However, in the last year, there has only been an increase of 0.5M developers. Kotlin’s explosive growth may have resulted from a high demand for developers with Kotlin experience to fill a market need that may be approaching a level of market saturation. Despite Google’s preference for Kotlin, the inertia of Java means that it is still the most popular language for mobile development and still experiences immense growth.
“Rust has more than tripled the size of its community in the past two years”
Rust has more than tripled the size of its community over the past two years and currently has 3.7M users, of which 0.6M joined in the last six months alone. Rust has overtaken Objective C in the last six months and is the 11th most popular language in our survey. Rust has seen increased adoption in IoT, games, and desktop development, where it is desired for its potential to build fast and scalable applications. Rust was designed to handle high levels of concurrency and parallelism. Thus it can handle increasing amounts of work or data without sacrificing performance. Furthermore, Rust has built a loyal community of developers who care about memory safety and security.
Swift currently counts 5.1M developers, adding more than 1.6M net new developers over the past year. This growth continues to stem from Apple making Swift the default programming language across the Apple ecosystem, which has the effect of phasing out the use of Objective C. Despite this, Objective C has also shown strong growth, adding 1.0M developers in the last year alone, resulting in a community of 3.4M developers. This is primarily through its use among IoT developers, who are increasingly turning to it for their on-device code, as well as a growing number of AR/VR developers. Nonetheless, Objective C has fallen behind Rust, whose more modern approach may be more appealing to developers.
Go and Ruby represent two of the smaller language communities that are important in backend development, but Go has seen substantially more growth over the last two years. Go’s developer community has more than doubled in the last two years, adding 2.3M new developers to its population, which stands at 4.7M developers. Similarly, Ruby has added 1.0M users to its community of 3.0M developers, showing impressive growth but trailing further behind Go.
“Lua has added almost 1M developers to its community in the past year”
In the past six months, Lua has overtaken Dart to become the 14th most popular programming language. Lua has shown massive growth over the past year, going from 1.4M developers in Q1 2022 to 2.3M in Q3 2023. Lua is an alternative scripting solution for low-level languages, such as C and C++, and has seen more developers in IoT, games, and AR/VR picking it up. This could mark the beginning of Lua’s momentum and see it become increasingly popular, especially as the IoT and AR/VR spaces continue to grow. Dart has seen steady but slow growth over the past two years, predominantly due to the Flutter framework in mobile development filling a useful niche. However, with 13% of mobile developers currently working in Dart, a decrease from 15% in Q1 2022 may see Dart’s growth remain low, and its place within mobile development remain a minority language.
The average cost of a security breach in a hybrid cloud environment is estimated at a staggering $3.6 million making it critical for organisations to make software security one of the most important priorities.
Cisco’s most recent report, based on the findings from two SlashData global surveys that targeted enterprise developers, uncovers developers’ exposure to API security exploits, their outlook on security, and how they use automation tools to detect and remediate threats. Here is a detailed preview of the report:
Enterprise developers focus on prioritising security from the early stages of development
There is a significant rise in security threats; in fact, 58% of enterprise developers have had to tackle at least one API exploit in the past year alone. And to make matters worse, nearly half of them have experienced multiple API exploits during that time.
As modern applications increasingly rely on microservices, securing the APIs that connect these services becomes even more crucial. It is also true that juggling multiple APIs can make staying on top of security challenging. That’s why it’s essential to prioritise security from the very beginning of development to avoid wasting time and effort on reworking code and dealing with exploits later on.
Obviously, breaches should be ideally prevented. But if they do occur, organisations must be set up to act swiftly. According to the report, ,only one-third of enterprise developers can resolve API exploits within one day of a breach.
By treating security as a top priority from the start of the development lifecycle, organisations can increase preparedness and avoid costly mistakes down the road.
2. What is the right time to address security concerns?
Shift-left security is all about strategically placing security at the forefront. The cost savings from addressing security concerns early in the development process can be significant compared to dealing with security issues during deployment or after a security breach. In fact, according to the data, many organisations are already putting significant effort into identifying security vulnerabilities during the early stages of development, and as a result, have implemented additional security measures.
How do enterprise developers address security?
3.Relying on automations can account for faster, and frictionless operations
During the surveys, developers were asked whether they use automated approaches to security, such as scanning tools or automated fixes.
The most likely group of developers to adopt automated security approaches are key decision-makers and team leads who influence, manage, or set the strategy for their teams’ purchase initiatives (90%).
This probably indicates that many developers still don’t use automation tools for security. However, it’s important for developers to use the best tools when it comes to the production of secure code.
While more than half of enterprise developers are already shifting left, less experienced developers are still behind. Automation appears to be core to the shift-left approach, with two-thirds of developers using automated security tools.
Nevertheless, automation is not favoured by developers who wish to acquire more experience. This highlights a need for balancing the need for learning with the importance of using the best security tools available.The organisations that are set up to go that way are very likely to reap the fruit of shift-left security.
Java microservice architecture is a groundbreaking approach to software development that is revolutionizing the industry. In addition, as per recent survey, nearly 70% of businesses are now using or planning to use microservice architecture in their development processes. Additionally, this method also divides large monolithic programs into smaller, independent services, each serving a distinct purpose. And when it comes to implementing microservices, Java is a popular choice for many developers.
Furthermore, one of the biggest advantages of Java Microservices Architecture is its ability to improve scalability and flexibility. In fact, a recent study found that companies using microservices architecture were able to increase their release frequency by up to 60%. This not only allows for a faster and more efficient development cycle, but also provides businesses with a competitive edge in their respective industries.
However, it’s not just about the benefits of Java Microservices but also about the challenges you may face. From managing complex interactions between services to ensuring data consistency and reliability, there are many factors to consider when implementing microservices-based systems.
Java Microservices is an architectural approach to building software applications that involves breaking large, monolithic applications into smaller, independent services. Developers use these services to perform specific functions and communicate with each other over a network using lightweight protocols such as HTTP or message queues.
The design of Java Microservices facilitates the development, testing, deployment, and scaling of individual components of the application by making them highly modular and loosely coupled. In addition, developers develop and deploy each microservice independently, enabling faster release cycles and making it easier to maintain the applications over time.
Additionally, Java is a popular language for developing microservices due to its object-oriented programming model, rich set of libraries, and strong support for concurrency and parallelism. Java microservices can be developed using a framework such as Spring Boot, which provides a lightweight and opinionated approach to building microservices.
In a nutshell, Java microservices offer a flexible and scalable architecture that can help developers to develop and maintain complex applications with greater agility and efficiency.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF JAVA MICROSERVICE
The architecture of Java Microservice is a combination of different architectural patterns, which you may see below;
Microservices Architecture
The main principle of microservice architecture is to create a set of independent, small, and self-contained services that work together to deliver the application’s functionality. Each service is in charge of a particular business capability, and services often communicate with one another via lightweight protocols like HTTP or SMS. Services in a microservice architecture must dynamically discover one another.
Service Registry and Discovery
In a microservice architecture, services need to discover each other dynamically. A service registry is a centralized database that keeps track of all the services that are available in the system, along with their network locations. The discovery process involves querying the registry for available services.
API Gateway
An API gateway is a server that needs to discover each other dynamically. It serves as a single entry point for clients. It also provides a unified interface to access multiple microservices. The API gateway handles the routing and composition of requests, as well as security, rate limiting, and other cross-cutting concerns.
Circuit Breaker
A design pattern known as a circuit breaker prevents a network or service failure from spreading to other services. It acts as a safety net, detecting failures and temporarily blocking requests to the affected service. This enables the system to function normally while the problem is being fixed
Event-Driven Architecture
Services communicate with one another in an event-driven architecture by publishing and subscribing to events. This allows for asynchronous communication, and services can be loosely coupled, which increases the system’s scalability and resilience.
Containerization
It is simpler to deploy and manage microservices by containerizing an application and its dependencies into a lightweight, portable container that offers a consistent runtime environment.
orchestration
Automation of container deployment, scaling, and management is accomplished through orchestration. Kubernetes is a popular orchestration tool that provides features such as discovery, load balancing, and automatic scaling.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF ADOPTING JAVA MICROSERVICES
Scalability
Microservices enhance scalability by designing small, self-contained services that can scale up or down as needed. . By avoiding the need to scale the entire program, this makes it simpler to manage changes in demand.
Flexibility
Offers flexibility to develop, deploy, and scale microservices independently, allowing teams to work in parallel and bring new features to market quickly.
Resilience
Because microservices are self-contained, failures in one service don’t necessarily bring down the entire system. This makes it easier to isolate problems and recover more quickly from failures.
Modularity
Improves modularity by organizing microservices around business capabilities, making it easier to modify specific parts of the system without affecting other parts.
Agility
Microservices make it simpler to adapt to changes in the market or customer needs by enabling quicker development and deployment cycles.
Technology diversity
Microservices architecture enables the use of a variety of programming languages and frameworks, allowing teams to choose the best tools for each individual service.
DevOps enablement
With microservices architecture, DevOps practices can be applied more effectively, making it easier to automate deployments, testing, and monitoring.
WHAT CHALLENGES YOU MAY FACE BY ADOPTING JAVA MICROSERVICES
Service boundaries
Defining the boundaries of services can be challenging, as it requires breaking down monolithic systems into smaller, autonomous services that can operate independently.
Data consistency
Maintaining data consistency across multiple services can be complex, as each service has its own database, and changes made in one service may not be immediately reflected in other services.
Communication and coordination
Effective communication and coordination between microservices is essential to ensure that each service functions seamlessly with others. This requires implementing effective messaging protocols and ensuring that each service can work with different data formats.
Deployment complexity
Deploying and managing multiple microservices can be challenging, as each service must be deployed separately and managed independently. This can require significant expertise and resources.
Testing complexity
Testing microservices can be complex, as each service must be tested in isolation and as part of the larger system. This requires developing effective testing strategies and tools.
Security
Because each service could have unique security needs and weaknesses, securing microservices can be difficult. This requires implementing robust security protocols and ensuring that each service is properly secured.
JAVA MICROSERVICE FRAMEWORKS
Spring Boot
Micronaut
Quarkus
Vert.x
CONCLUSION
As you have read how Java microservice architecture consists of many benefits which is enough to adopt it. Java Development Services can benefit greatly from Java Microservices Architecture. Although it has challenges, you may get rid of them by following proper planning. Additionally, As the famous software engineer Martin Fowler once said, “Microservices, or more precisely the microservice architecture, is an approach to developing a single application as a suite of small services, each running in its own process and communicating with lightweight mechanisms.” Therefore, using this strategy, businesses may divide their large, complex apps into smaller, easier-to-manage parts that can be created and deployed separately.
Author Bio: Nitin Patil is a seasoned Sr. SEO Executive at Bigscal, a leading software development company. With over 7+ years of experience in the digital marketing industry, Nitin specializes in driving organic growth for businesses through search engine optimization strategies.
The gaming industry is seeing a big shift with the rise of digital technology. With digital money, game developers are finding new ways to earn money. This also allows them to offer better gaming experiences.
The effect of digital money is not exclusive to games. Given time, digital money can change the world. It is soon expected to change the global economy and society. From cryptocurrency to mobile payment systems, digital money is creating new avenues for finance, commerce, and social interaction.
This article will tackle how digital money will alter gaming, and what it means for players and developers.
In-game Purchases
In-game purchases are a goldmine for developers in today’s video game industry. The controversy surrounding these microtransactions is a discussion for another day. But one thing is for certain: they are here to stay.
Offering virtual goods and services in exchange for digital currency has become a reliable way to generate revenue. Developers encourage players to purchase their digital currency with real money by making the process of earning it in-game, time-consuming and difficult.
The result? They have a steady stream of revenue to fund development and maintenance.
Aside from providing developers with a financial boost, in-game purchases also give players plenty of customization options. Cosmetic items for their avatars and worlds are often the top sellers in various games’ digital shops.
Moreover, in-game purchases give players the opportunity to explore new content and experiences. This extends the lifespan of the game, giving long-time players more to chew on.
The prevalence of in-game purchases is beneficial to both game developers and players. But it is not without downsides. The allure of purchases can lead to risks such as overspending and addiction. This is especially true for virtual goods that involve chance, making them akin to gambling.
It is important for developers to maintain transparency in their purchase systems. Players, on the other hand, must be aware of their spending habits to avoid falling prey to fraudulent schemes.
Virtual Goods and Currencies
In digital economies within the gaming industry, goods and currencies play vital roles, especially in virtual reality games. Unlike traditional economies, these digital economies are intricate and operate differently. Players either earn or purchase virtual currency and subsequently use it to buy virtual goods.
These goods typically enhance gameplay or provide cosmetic upgrades, such as new gear, weapons, or outfits. They can also be traded or sold for virtual currency among players.
The operation of virtual currency in these digital economies resembles that of real currency. Players can obtain virtual currency by engaging in gameplay. Most commonly, developers allow players to purchase virtual currency using real money.
The value of virtual currency can fluctuate based on supply and demand. It can also be exchanged for virtual goods. In some cases, virtual currency can even be converted into real currency. Consequently, it establishes a connection between the digital and real-world economies.
The use of virtual goods and currencies within gaming has spawned a new ecosystem. It is attracting the attention of entities outside of the gaming industry. Companies have explored ways to incorporate virtual currency into non-gaming settings, such as social networks and e-commerce.
With the potential of digital money extending beyond gaming, many experts speculate that it will soon revolutionize the world of finance and commerce.
Blockchain Technology in Gaming
Blockchain technology has gained popularity in gaming due to its decentralized nature. This allows secure and transparent recording of transactions and virtual assets. Game developers can use blockchain to ensure asset uniqueness and prevent duplication or manipulation.
The benefits of blockchain in gaming include the following:
Ownership: Blockchain enables players to fully own and control their virtual assets. These assets can be transferred across games and platforms to increase interoperability.
Security: Blockchain ensures high security by using an unalterable public ledger to record all transactions. This helps prevent hacking or tampering.
Transparency: Blockchain provides transaction transparency. It allows players to view their transaction history and asset provenance.
In-game economies: Developers can create in-game economies with virtual currencies. Players can use these currencies to earn real-world value for their virtual assets through trading.
Increased revenue: Blockchain allows new revenue streams through the sale of unique virtual assets or in-game economies. This can lead to increased profitability for developers.
Benefits and Challenges
Digital money in gaming offers benefits for game developers and players. It creates new revenue opportunities for developers and enhances the user experience for players. However, potential risks like fraud and addiction are associated with the use of digital money.
Regulatory and legal challenges must be considered. Governments may restrict the use of digital money in gaming or require game developers to obtain licenses. The practice can also raise concerns about money laundering and fraud. When ignored, these issues may result in legal action against the developers.
Moreover, the lack of clear legal frameworks for digital money in gaming can create uncertainty and risk for both developers and players.
Summing Up
Digital money is changing the gaming industry by offering revenue generation and improved user experiences. However, its impact extends beyond gaming and could revolutionize the global economy and society.
As digital money evolves, staying informed about its benefits and challenges will be crucial. Game developers and players must learn to adapt and thrive in this rapidly changing landscape.
