code

Slaying the Dragon: Tips for Legacy Application Modernization

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Legacy Application Modernization

Many organizations have them: old applications written in time immemorial, poorly documented, and with nonexistent tests. Yet, they’re still responsible for holding up key parts of the production environment, even if no one understands exactly how. Venturing into the code can feel like stepping over the threshold of a dragon’s lair: make one wrong step and suddenly your world is engulfed in flames. Legacy application modernization can seem daunting. But sometimes it is necessary that we conduct development on our legacy applications, and this post will present some guidelines on how to get a handle on a legacy application modernization project and extract some value without burning the world down … Read more

The Myths of the Low Code/No Code Solutions  

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Low Code/No Code Solutions

The Power Platform solutions that include Power Apps, Power Pages, and Power Automate, offer low code/no code solutions for application builds. This is fantastic when you have quick and simple implementations (like a generic form that can be quickly accessed by a wide range of users) that don’t require you to get fancy.   The low code/no code solution can be extremely useful for mid-complexity implementations as well but can struggle as complexity increases. This blog will discuss the limitations and myths surrounding low code/no code solutions and serve as a guide to highlight how Improving can help with choosing when and how to use low code/no code solutions.   Low Code/No … Read more

Virtual Workspaces Are Here! How Will You Use Them? 

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My YouTube feed has been full of reviews of the Apple Vision Pro since it became available in the US on February 2. In one of the videos, the content creator used the Vision Pro for working on his script, and several other tasks around his house (See video). This intrigued me and I wondered what it would be like to code in a virtual environment and create virtual workspaces. I don’t have $4k lying around and the Vision Pro isn’t available in Canada yet. So, my ability to try it was rather limited.  For Christmas 2023, I bought myself a Meta Quest 3 headset. Thanks in part to our … Read more

Primary Constructors (C# 12 Syntactic Sugar): A Guide 

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Primary Constructors

With the introduction of .Net8 and C#12 in November of 2023, there were many significant changes to .NET and C#. One such feature in C#12 is the concept of a Primary Constructor. A Primary constructor replaces a class constructor with parameters on the class. The parameters for the constructor are available anywhere in the body of the class.   With Primary Constructor:  It is important to note that the class parameters are not fields of the class. The following code will not compile if used in SimpleClass, as foo and bar are not available on “this”.  Using a Primary Constructor can significantly improve the readability of your code, as it does away with a lot … Read more

5 Software Development Trends for 2024 

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Software Development Trends

In the last few years, we have witnessed unprecedented changes and advancements in technology, which have impacted the world of software development. These changes have presented organizations with additional opportunities and have allowed them to achieve new successes. The ever-changing world of technology can be difficult to keep up with. Trends change quickly and new products and solutions are consistently introduced. We have compiled 5 software development trends to help you understand what to keep an eye on in 2024.   Artificial Intelligence Explosion  Artificial intelligence is opening doors for software development both in enabling efficient work experience for developers through tools like CoPilot, and by augmenting the applications themselves. AI … Read more

Understanding Microsoft Syntex: The Power of Intelligent Document Processing

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Organizations deal with vast amounts of information in the form of documents, emails, and other structured or unstructured content. Unraveling valuable insights from these data sources can often pose a significant challenge. In today’s digital age, with the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies, organizations have powerful tools like Microsoft Syntex to streamline document processing and enhance productivity.   Microsoft Syntex is content AI integrated in flow of work. Content AI transforms how content is created, processed, and discovered. Microsoft Syntex is a solution built on Microsoft 365 and SharePoint and powered by Artificial Intelligence. This helps organizations automate content processing, extract valuable information, and increase … Read more

Using Configuration Files When Developing Projects with Xcode

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For most products, having separate environments for testing and production is common. If you’re building an iPhone application (which utilizes a backend API service) you’ll likely have a variable containing the environment endpoint value. For simple applications, configuration changes could be managed using a debug conditional compiler directive. However, with larger projects or when targeting several environments, a more robust solution is required due to the project’s complex nature. In this case, we would use configuration files.   Configuration Files:  Xcode utilizes a simple file format, xcconfig, to manage application configuration externally from the project file or source code. These files consist of a collection of key-value pairs and can be … Read more