Coding trends 2025

In the tech world, there is a constant flow of changes and keeping up with them means the choice for tools and technologies which are the most appropriate to invest your time in. In 2025 the best programming language or technology stack to learn really depends on your personal aims, hobbies, and apps you are going to create.

The interest in Java is dropping. February 2025 TIOBE programming community index. C++, which has long been the cornerstone of system programming and performance-critical applications, has officially overtaken Java to take second place in the TIOBE programming language popularity index. A new report from the Java vendor Azul claims that 88% of companies are considering moving off of Oracle Java to another alternative as a result of rising costs and restrictive policies from Oracle, among other issues.

The growing trend in the world of software development: speed matters. C++, Go, and Rust are gaining popularity because the need for computing power increases faster than speed of CPUs is increasing, sothere is a growing interest to the fast programming languages. While C++ is establishing itself, other fast languages ​​are making significant strides. Go continues its top 10 ranking, while Rust has reached an all-time high.

Python still holds its place at the top of the programming world. Since the number of trained experts in the software industry is not enough to cover the growing need, professionals from many other fields are taking over programming skills with the help of Python. This ensures that Python maintains its position even as speed continues to be emphasized in programming language choices. Programs written with Python are often notoriously slow and inefficient. Python 3.14, due out later this year, is set to receive a new type of interpreter that can boost performance by up to 30% with no changes to existing code. Write Python like it’s 2025 and check Python Libraries That Will Make You Feel Like a Data Wizard.

There are also innovative alternatives to the popular languages are gaining steam—and one of them could be the perfect fit for your next project. Top programming languages to learn in 2025: Python, JavaScript, Rust, and more – maybe also Go. Check out also those 11 cutting-edge programming languages to learn now or decide it is better for you to not going to learn a new programming language this year.

Microsoft is actively pushing Visual Studio Code extensions for many uses and even replacing existing separate tools. GitHub Copilot is advertised as your AI pair programmer tool in Visual Studio Code. Check the Best VS Code Extensions to Boost Your Productivity.

Best Backend Frameworks for 2025: A Developer’s Guide to Making the Right Choice The stakes for choosing the right backend framework have never been higher. With the explosion of AI-powered applications, real-time processing requirements, and microservices architectures, your framework choice can make or break your project’s success.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating at an astonishing pace, quickly moving from emerging technologies to impacting coding a lot AI tools have come heavily to the coding. Coders use AI to help their coding in many ways. You can write code quickly. How to refactor code with GitHub Copilot. How To Build Web Components Using ChatGPT. There are also warnings that Using GitHub Copilot is one sure-fire way to never actually learn how to do coding.

The web has come a long way from static HTML pages to dynamic and highly interactive applications. When traditional JavaScript-based web apps struggle with performance-intensive tasks, WebAssembly (WASM) promises to enable near-native performance on the web. Read Why WebAssembly (WASM) is the Future of High-Performance Web Apps.

JavaScript in 2025 will see advancements in serverless architectures, integration with WebAssembly, adoption of microfrontends, and more. JavaScript is also a fighting field. Deno filed a petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to cancel Oracle’s trademark in November 2024. Oracle will not voluntarily release its trademark on the word “JavaScript”. Building Modern React Apps in 2025 – A Guide to Cutting-Edge Tools and Tech Stacks

The open source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment Node.js will soon support TypeScript by default, without extra configuration. Node 23 will be able to run TypeScript files without any extra configuration. Express is an extremely commonly used web server application framework in Node.js.

Open Source in 2025: Strap In, Disruption Straight Ahead article takes a look for new tensions to arise in the New Year over licensing, the open source AI definition, security and compliance, and how to pay volunteer maintainers. For good news check out Top Open Source Projects to Watch in 2025 and 13 top open-source tools you must use for your next big project in 2025.

The Mobile Development Tech Stack for 2025 selection is important because the right tech stack can make or break your mobile app. The mobile development tech stack for 2025 is rich with opportunities.

Must-Know 2025 Developer’s Roadmap and Key Programming Trends article says that in the world of coding trends, one thing is clear: classic languages like Java, Python, and JavaScript are still important, but they’re being joined by new favorites such as Go and Rust. And when you ask “Is JavaScript or Python 2025?” the answer is rarely simple – and could be that you need both.
Here are some points:
Python’s Growth in Data Work and AI: Python continues to lead because of its easy-to-read style and the huge number of libraries available for tasks from data work to artificial intelligence. Tools like TensorFlow and PyTorch make it a must-have.
JavaScript and Its Ongoing Role in Building Website: JavaScript (and by extension, TypeScript) is the basic building block. JavaScript is still essential for web work, running both the parts you see on a site and the behind-the-scenes work, but many coders are now preferring TypeScript for business projects. Try building a small web app using React.
The Rise of Go and Rust: For those looking at future coding languages 2025, Go and Rust are getting a lot of attention.
Java, C++, and C#: The Reliable Favorites: Even in 2025, there’s no ignoring that languages like Java, C++, and C# are still important. Java continues to be a top choice for large business applications and Android app development, while C++ is key in systems work and game development.
There are several shifts that every aspiring coder should keep in mind:
Adding Artificial Intelligence to Coding: The future of coding is closely linked with AI
Building for the Cloud: With cloud computing becoming common, languages that handle many tasks at once and run fast (like Go and Rust) are more important than ever.
The Need for Full-Stack Skills: Coders today are expected to handle both the front part of websites and the back-end work. JavaScript, along with tools like Node.js and modern front-end libraries, is key.
Focus on Safety and Speed: With online security becoming a big issue, languages that help avoid mistakes are getting more attention. Rust’s features that prevent memory errors and Go’s straightforward style are good examples.
Keep Learning and Stay Flexible: One thing that never changes in tech is change itself. What is popular in 2024 might be different in 2025.

Here’s a simple table that sums up some facts in plain language:

Language 2025 Trend Main Advantage Resource Link
Python Leads in data work and AI Easy to read, lots of tools GeeksforGeeks
JavaScript Essential for building websites Works everywhere on the web Snappify
TypeScript Becoming popular in large projects Helps catch errors early Fullstack Academy
Go Growing quickly in cloud computing Fast and handles many tasks at once Nucamp
Rust New favorite for safe, low-level coding Prevents common memory mistakes The Ceres Group
Java Still important for big business and Android work Runs on many types of systems Wikipedia


Best Dev Stacks to Learn in 2025
lists the top development stacks for 2025 to be:
1. MERN Stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js)
2. MEVN Stack (MongoDB, Express.js, Vue.js, Node.js)
3. JAMstack (JavaScript, APIs, Markup)
4. T3 Stack (Next.js, TypeScript, tRPC, Tailwind CSS, Prisma)
5. Flutter Stack (Flutter, Firebase)
6. PERN Stack (PostgreSQL, Express.js, React, Node.js)
7. Django Stack (Django, PostgreSQL, React/Angular)
8. DevOps Stack (Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Terraform)
9. AI/ML Stack (Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch, FastAPI)
10. Blockchain Development Stack (Solidity, Ethereum, Hardhat)
11. Spring Boot + React Stack

10 hot programming trends — and 10 going cold
Hot: Repatriation
Not: Cloud bills
Hot: AI partners
Not: Human pair programming
Hot: Rust
Not: C/C++
Hot: Wasm
Not: Interpreters
Hot: CPUs
Not: GPUs
Hot: Zero-knowledge proofs
Not: Digital signatures
Hot: Trustworthy ledgers
Not: Turing-complete ledgers
Hot: GraphQL
Not: REST
Hot: Static site generators
Not: Single-page apps
Hot: Database configuration
Not: Software programming

What’s trending in Software-driven Automation (SDA) in 2025? Here are some predictions:
1. Virtual Safe Control – A new and novel concept introduced by CODESYS and SILista, making it possible to implement Functional Safety controller reaching SIL2 or even SIL3 level, using generic hardware with help of software virtualisation. This will significantly decrease cost of hardware and speed up development cycle.
2. Open platforms – This trend started already last year, and now we’re seeing more and more automation vendors coming this way. #ctrlXOS opened the game, and there are other vendors like Phoenix coming the same way with their PLCnext Virtualised.
3. Model-based Design (MBD) – An old concept but not yet fully utilised in development. Maybe because lack of well integrated toolchains in the past. But now we’re seeing more and more industrial players adopting the methodology in their product development.
4. AI, of course, but how? Naturally AI can assist in efficient software development and testing. Also some algorithm optimisation and condition monitoring with AI and ML has been seen.

770 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Compared to the big beasts of the Linux world, it was always a niche player. However, as with many niche distributions, it had its devoted fans. Those fans clearly did not include Intel’s new boss.

    The Clear Linux OS repo is to be archived in read-only mode, meaning that a fork will be required if anyone chooses to pick up the baton.

    One user on the Clear Linux forums commented: “Seriously? No grace period, users are supposed to instantly migrate? That’s not very serious honestly.”

    https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/23/linux_dev_site_windows/?td=keepreading

    If you’re building a website that will eventually be hosted on a Linux server (as so many are), you have a couple of choices about where you do your development work. You can create a beta version of the site at your web host and upload all of the files there or you can create a local test server that sits in your home or office.

    The test server could be a separate Linux machine such as a Raspberry Pi or it could be your main PC if you run Linux as your desktop OS. If you’re doing your coding in Windows, you could run a local Windows web server, but that’s not the best simulation of your production environment.

    Instead, I recommend using Windows Subsystem for Linux to run a local Linux web server within Microsoft’s OS. That way you can write your code in Windows while running it on the same platform it’s destined for, no second computer or remote server required. Here’s how.

    we’ll install AlmaLinux 9 to use as our Linux distribution. By default, if you don’t install WSL with the –no-distribution option, it will install Ubuntu, but most web hosting platforms use CentOS or AlmaLinux (which is similar to CentOS) so we’re going with that.

    After that, it’s time to install a control panel app for the web server. Many hosting services use cPanel, but that comes with a licensing fee, so we’re going to use Virtualmin and its companion Webmin (Virtualmin controls the server while Webmin controls each account), which is a free alternative. If you already own cPanel or another app, use that.

    If, during the process, you are asked for a fully-qualified domain name, you can enter something like host.example.com just to move the process along. We’ll be using the IP address to get to Virtualmin, Webmin, and our local site.

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    EU cloud gang wins Microsoft concessions, but fair software licensing group brands them ‘stalling tactic’
    Pay-as-you-go model, privacy protections agreed – but critics say it just buys ‘Microsoft more time to lock in customers’
    iconLindsay Clark
    Fri 18 Jul 2025 // 06:00 UTC
    Updated A trade group of European cloud providers has claimed a small victory in bringing lower prices and more flexibility in deploying Microsoft software on their infrastructure, though the Coalition for Fair Software Licensing has blasted it as a “stalling tactic” by the software giant
    https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/18/cispe_microsoft_concessions/?td=keepreading

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Artificial Intelligence
    Vibe Coding: When Everyone’s a Developer, Who Secures the Code?
    https://www.securityweek.com/vibe-coding-when-everyones-a-developer-who-secures-the-code/

    As AI makes software development accessible to all, security teams face a new challenge: protecting applications built by non-developers at unprecedented speed and scale.

    Just as the smart phone made everyone a digital photographer, vibe coding will make everyone a software developer and will change the software development industry forever.

    Andrej Karpathy, co-founder of OpenAI and former AI leader at Tesla, introduced the term ‘vibe coding’ in a February 2, 2025, tweet. “There’s a new kind of coding I call ‘vibe coding’, where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists.” He was primarily expressing an emotional response to using AI to automate a specific process; but the term took and is now universally used as the general label for AI-generated or assisted programming.

    Vibe coding is a subset of context engineering. If you get the context complete and accurate, it should be possible to plot a path through the context to provide accurate coding. The context comprises the details required for the finished code. This is provided by the coder. The interface between the coder and the AI is natural language (usually English, but not necessarily).

    The AI uses LLM capabilities in this interface, so vibe coding generally uses existing foundational models, such as the newer models of GPT, Claude, or Gemini Pro. Sometimes the LLMs can be integrated with specialized IDEs, such as VS Code, Cursor and Windsurf. Ultimately, however, all the problems that still affect LLMs (such as hallucinations and bias) can also affect the accuracy of vibe coding.

    Vibe coding is new. Although AI has been used within programs for more than 70 years, now it can be used to generate entirely new programs. It has the potential to upend the entire software development industry; but it’s new, and like all new developments, it has its teething problems. Teething problems get sorted over time, but right now we’re still in the teething phase.

    “I like to think of Generative AI in 2025 as like ‘having a website’ in 1999. It’s difficult to sort out the hype from the signal; but underneath all the noise, the reality is that it’s going to impact just about everything we do,” explains Casey Ellis, the founder of Bugcrowd

    “Vibe coding is when you tell an AI, like a chatbot, what you want your software to do using regular words, and it writes the code for you,” says J Stephen Kowski, Field CTO at SlashNext. “This means you don’t need to know how to program; you just describe your idea, and the AI turns it into working software.”

    But if you want complex or unique features, or if you don’t double-check the AI’s work, you might run into problems.

    Strengths and weaknesses

    The biggest apparent strength is speed. “Vibe coding gives you massive acceleration when prototyping web apps, especially with simple known apps with low to moderate complexity,” explains Jonathan Rhyne, co-founder and CEO at Nutrient.

    It democratizes the process of creating software. Anybody with an idea and an understanding of how the idea should work can create a working program. You no longer need to know a programming language, you merely need to know how to use AI – which itself is no mean feat.

    Speed and democratization mean more code at less cost – so the real strength is the economics or vibe coding. It is here, and it must be used lest competitors gain the competitive edge.

    The problem is these strengths come bearing their own weaknesses. ‘Democratization’ is a potential weakness. “There are communities and open-source projects dedicated to providing vibe coders with configuration files that can improve the efficacy of their AI tools,” explains Kaushik Devireddy, senior product manager at Deepwatch.

    “Vibe coders, who may be from non-technical roles, are constantly hunting for new configuration files. The result is an opportunity for bad actors to publish and gain adoption of malicious config files. This creates a brand-new attack-vector, manifesting in the application logic layer – which is a particularly thorny area to secure.”

    Speed can also be a weakness. “On the downside,” says Ellis, “AI is quite good at getting to the ‘90% OK’ solution – but the bad stuff tends to happen in the 10%. Vulnerabilities exist as a probabilistic function of the number of lines of code. We’re producing an increasingly high velocity of lines of code – and more code means more vulnerabilities. On top of this, speed is the natural enemy of quality, and security is a child of quality.”

    “Vibe coding enables non-expert professionals to develop and prototype, but the code it produces will not inherently be secure and could inject vulnerabilities into systems.”

    Inti De Ceukelaire, chief hacker officer at crowdsourced security / bug bounty firm Intigriti confirms this combination of strengths and weaknesses in current vibe coding. “Vibe coding is helpful, but it’s not a magic fix,” he says. “I used it to build a small hacking tool in just one day, which would have taken me weeks to make on my own. It’s also been great for fixing simple bugs or creating quick prototypes. But once a project gets bigger and more complex, the AI starts making more mistakes. At that point, it can take just as long to guide and correct the AI as it would to code it myself from scratch.”

    So, security teams can still benefit from vibe coding by playing to its strengths – small, individual tools focused on defined purposes that can help solve local security concerns without needing to be pretty.

    For larger scale applications with a wider audience, a ‘human in the loop’ is standard advice for all interactions with AI. It offers benefits but should not be considered a solution. “The truly pernicious scenario,” suggests Sohrob Kazerounian, distinguished AI researcher at Vectra AI, “is when keeping a human in the loop leads to a false sense of security and ultimately results in an increase in failures.”

    He almost suggests reversing the emphasis – rather than using a human to check and improve AI-generated code, use AI (in the form of specialist agentic AI) to check and improve human-generated code.

    “You can do things faster. You can be more ambitious about the things you can build, and you can build it on your own and have more fun doing it. You can do things that would have required a team, or a team of teams, of developers,” comments Gene Kim, author and former independent director at the Energy Sector Security Consortium. “There’s something so magical about that, and for me, it’s an amazing time to be alive. I’m outrageously, and I don’t think completely naively optimistic about what it does to our profession.”

    That doesn’t mean that just anybody can immediately produce good code results through vibe coding. The quality of the output is directly proportional to the quality of the input prompts, explains Pukar Hamal, founder and CEO at SecurityPal.AI.

    “You need to understand the basics of software development. You need to know what algorithms are and how they work, and how different lines of code work together to produce good software; and you must be able to phrase your prompt queries clearly and accurately aligned with your intended outcomes. If you can do all this, you are likely to get better code with fewer bugs.”

    If you don’t understand how software fundamentally works, he continues, “Chances are, when you tell an LLM to write a lottery number generating application, it will likely be highly verbose and will potentially have 150 lines of code or more. We have a term that describes this overwhelming amount of low quality generated output that usually comes from a lack of input rigor: ‘AI slop’.”

    But you don’t need to be inexperienced at coding to fall short with vibe coding. Jonathan Rende, CPO at Checkmarx, describes an internal experiment conducted by one of his heads of engineering. “He went round all the different leads in the organization, and set them a task using vibe coding. After 45 minutes he went back round. Those that understood the big picture of how certain things in vibe coding needed to fit together, did a tremendous job. Those who simply tried to apply their old methods of coding, not so much.”

    These were all engineers and developers. Some embraced the future while others simply tried to repeat the past, but faster. “Those who used vibe coding as a new tool to be used in a new way will do well, but the others will become less relevant.” This is the challenge for all coders today — learn to use vibe coding as a new tool with its own rules of engagement, or fall by the wayside since there will be a smaller demand for programmers simply because of the sheer speed of vibe coding used efficiently.

    We’re in this transition phase. Vibe coding still requires a lot of manual intervention to minimize the inherent problems with LLMs, such as hallucinations and bias. “There are inherent problems,” says Kim. “it’s the developer’s job to ensure the AI isn’t calling functions that don’t exist – which can happen. The same engineering skills that we’ve always used are even more important now because AI amplifies the strengths and weaknesses we already have.”

    Rende agrees. “LLMs will get better over time and there will be fewer hallucinations and more automated validation.” But for now, the best way to prevent or limit hallucinations is through more accurate prompts. “The better the question, the better the response; and then being able to check and validate as best as possible. Those are the keys right now: how you ask and how you validate.”

    The problem right now is AI is usually described as probabilistic, while traditional programming is deterministic. We need to shift our approach from working with probabilism rather than determinism. But change is already happening.

    Sola Security has developed a SaaS platform designed to help their security customers solve their own problems

    “You don’t need to be the most expert security person,” explains Dor Swissa, VP R&D at Sola. “Sola will give you that knowledge about security.” And then it helps you to use vibe coding to develop a unique app tailored to your own domain.

    This is perhaps one of the most exciting areas of vibe coding: it has the future potential to allow all firms to have their own uniquely tailored and integrated security apps and break free from the need to buy multiple overlapping solutions that never quite fit the requirement. This is democratization coupled with freedom of movement.

    Summary

    Will there be fewer coders in the vibe coding future? Yes and no. In one sense, everyone will become a developer, so there will be more. Employees will no longer be reliant on submitting a small request to engineering followed by an indefinite wait for a response — they’ll create their own code in minutes rather than waiting for weeks. This is the truly exciting element of vibe coding: power to the people.

    But there will be fewer specialist or full-time professional coders working on large scale, complex apps. One person will do the work of many, faster and more efficiently. And there will be lower emphasis on the creative skills of that coder. Artistry in the coding process will become redundant. Creativity will be limited to the ideation.

    Business exists to create profit, not to employ people. Creativity will be reduced to defining outcomes, while AI will perform the creation.

    Today’s creators will need to make that transition or fall by the wayside. It will apply in the relatively short term to all current ‘creators’ (including programmers through vibe coding, journalists through content creation, and graphic artists through picture generation), and even baristas through the combination of robotics and AI in the longer term. This will happen through the sheer driving force of business economics. Love it or hate it, get over it. Either run with the wind or fight it and fail.

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Artificial Intelligence
    The Wild West of Agentic AI – An Attack Surface CISOs Can’t Afford to Ignore

    As organizations rush to adopt agentic AI, security leaders must confront the growing risk of invisible threats and new attack vectors.

    https://www.securityweek.com/the-wild-wild-west-of-agentic-ai-an-attack-surface-cisos-cant-afford-to-ignore/

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Silicon Valley Is in Its ‘Hard Tech’ Era

    Goodbye to the age of consumer websites and mobile apps. Artificial intelligence has ushered in an era of what insiders in the nation’s innovation capital call “hard tech.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/technology/ai-silicon-valley-hard-tech.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bk8.t0w-.jiIF3FBqqrfO&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    AI coding tools make developers slower but they think they’re faster, study finds
    Predicted a 24% boost, but clocked a 19% drag
    https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/11/ai_code_tools_slow_down/

    Artificial intelligence coding tools are supposed to make software development faster, but researchers who tested these tools in a randomized, controlled trial found the opposite.

    Computer scientists with Model Evaluation & Threat Research (METR), a non-profit research group, have published a study showing that AI coding tools made software developers slower, despite expectations to the contrary.

    Not only did the use of AI tools hinder developers, but it led them to hallucinate, much like the AIs have a tendency to do themselves. The developers predicted a 24 percent speedup, but even after the study concluded, they believed AI had helped them complete tasks 20 percent faster when it had actually delayed their work by about that percentage.

    “After completing the study, developers estimate that allowing AI reduced completion time by 20 percent,” the study says. “Surprisingly, we find that allowing AI actually increases completion time by 19 percent — AI tooling slowed developers down.”

    The developers then proceeded to work on their issues, using their AI tool of choice (mainly Cursor Pro with Claude 3.5/3.7 Sonnet) when allowed to do so. The work occurred between February and June 2025.

    Artificial intelligence coding tools are supposed to make software development faster, but researchers who tested these tools in a randomized, controlled trial found the opposite.

    Computer scientists with Model Evaluation & Threat Research (METR), a non-profit research group, have published a study showing that AI coding tools made software developers slower, despite expectations to the contrary.

    Not only did the use of AI tools hinder developers, but it led them to hallucinate, much like the AIs have a tendency to do themselves. The developers predicted a 24 percent speedup, but even after the study concluded, they believed AI had helped them complete tasks 20 percent faster when it had actually delayed their work by about that percentage.

    Surprisingly, we find that allowing AI actually increases completion time by 19 percent — AI tooling slowed developers down

    “After completing the study, developers estimate that allowing AI reduced completion time by 20 percent,” the study says. “Surprisingly, we find that allowing AI actually increases completion time by 19 percent — AI tooling slowed developers down.”

    The study involved 16 experienced developers who work on large, open source projects. The developers provided a list of real issues (e.g. bug fixes, new features, etc.) they needed to address – 246 in total – and then forecast how long they expected those tasks would take. The issues were randomly assigned to allow or disallow AI tool usage.

    The developers then proceeded to work on their issues, using their AI tool of choice (mainly Cursor Pro with Claude 3.5/3.7 Sonnet) when allowed to do so. The work occurred between February and June 2025.

    The study says the slowdown can likely be attributed to five factors:

    “Over-optimism about AI usefulness” (developers had unrealistic expectations)
    “High developer familiarity with repositories” (the devs were experienced enough that AI help had nothing to offer them)
    “Large and complex repositories” (AI performs worse in large repos with 1M+ lines of code)
    “Low AI reliability” (devs accepted less than 44 percent of generated suggestions and then spent time cleaning up and reviewing)
    “Implicit repository context” (AI didn’t understand the context in which it operated).

    Other considerations like AI generation latency and failure to provide models with optimal context (input) may have played some role in the results, but the researchers say they’re uncertain how such things affected the study.

    Other researchers have also found that AI does not always live up to the hype. A recent study from AI coding biz Qodo found some of the benefits of AI software assistance were undercut by the need to do additional work to check AI code suggestions. An economic survey found that generative AI has had no impact on jobs or wages, based on data from Denmark. An Intel study found that AI PCs make users less productive. And call center workers at a Chinese electrical utility say that while AI assistance can accelerate some tasks, it also slows things down by creating more work.

    Whomp-whomp: AI PCs make users less productive
    110 comment bubble on white
    People just don’t know how to wrangle chatbots into useful things, Intel says
    https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/22/ai_pcs_productivity/

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Why Developers Are Quietly Returning to VS Code and Ditching Cursor
    Developers lose interest in AI coding tools as Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code gains features, reliability.
    https://analyticsindiamag.com/ai-features/why-developers-are-quietly-returning-to-vs-code-and-ditching-cursor/

    Some shifts in tech are loud. Others, like this one, are a silent walk back to a familiar ground. Over the past few weeks, developers have been gradually admitting that they’re switching back from the AI coding tool Cursor to the integrated development environment Visual Studio Code. The reasons are consistent: reliability, progress of Copilot, and a dawning realisation that features mean little when the basics break. Cursor, once the standout of the AI developer tool scene, is now seeing loyal users migrate, not because it failed, but because Microsoft quietly caught up. Even those who still like Cursor are leaving without drama. Copilot Catches Up to Cursor Santiago Valdarrama, a computer scientist, took to X and said, “I’m officially going back to VS Code. Incredible pro
    Subscribe or

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Ransomwaren koodaajat löysivät Rustin
    https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/17779-ransomwaren-koodaajat-loeysivaet-rustin

    Heinäkuun kyberuhkakatsaus kertoo selkeää kieltä: kiristyshaittaohjelmat eivät ole hiipumassa, vaan niiden kehitys kiihtyy. Check Point Researchin mukaan kiristyshaittaohjelmatapaukset kasvoivat maailmanlaajuisesti 28 % viime vuoden heinäkuuhun verrattuna. Kolme ryhmää – Qilin, Inc. Ransom ja Akira – hallitsivat kenttää, ja erityisesti Qilin ja Akira ovat siirtyneet käyttämään ohjelmointikieli Rustia hyökkäystyökalujensa kehittämisessä.

    Miksi Rust kasvattaa suosiotaan verkkorikollisten parissa? Rust on moderni ohjelmointikieli, joka yhdistää korkean suorituskyvyn ja vahvat muistiturvaominaisuudet. Se käännetään suoraan natiiviksi konekoodiksi, mikä mahdollistaa tiedostojen nopean salauksen ennen kuin uhri ehtii havaita hyökkäystä.

    Rustin monialustatuki helpottaa haittaohjelman rakentamista eri käyttöjärjestelmille – Windowsille, Linuxille ja ESXi-ympäristöille – samasta lähdekoodista. Lisäksi Rustin käännösjälki ja modulaarinen rakenne tekevät haittaohjelmien tunnistamisesta ja purkamisesta vaikeampaa perinteisille tietoturvatyökaluille. Binäärit voivat näyttää analysointityökaluissa epätavallisilta, mikä heikentää tunnistusta, ja kielen rakenteet tukevat helposti obfuskointia eli koodin tarkoituksen peittämistä.

    - Rustin käyttö on osoitus siitä, että hyökkääjät seuraavat ohjelmistokehityksen trendejä yhtä tarkasti kuin puolustajat. Kyberrikolliset hyödyntävät samoja moderneja kehitystyökaluja, jotka tekevät laillisista sovelluksista nopeampia ja turvallisempia

    Heinäkuussa Qilin hyödynsi Rust-pohjaisia salausohjelmia erityisesti terveydenhuollon ja koulutusalan organisaatioihin kohdistuvissa hyökkäyksissä, kun taas Akira käytti Rustia optimoidakseen hyökkäyksensä virtualisointiympäristöihin.

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Why LLMs Can’t Really Build Software. LOL. Vibe coding and auto code generation are only good if you know what you’re doing and have a background/experince in programming. But, like everything in life, a few people overhyped it.
    https://www.facebook.com/share/16yvB3udLn/

    Read blog https://zed.dev/blog/why-llms-cant-build-software if you want details :P

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    I am a software developer, but with “vibe coding” I have been able to make quite a few apps / tools in coding languages I have next to no experience with.

    Yesterday I made a OpenStreetMaps webapp, that can plan routes both on roads and small paths pretty similar to Google Maps. I have not had my hands directly on any of the code.

    Of course it always helps having experience. If an LLM runs into problems that it cannot easily solve it might end up running into a very annoying error loop where it keeps trying the same 3-4 solutions.

    I would compare it a bit to doing web searches… if you know what you are searching for its much easier to come up with good keywords. Its the same when having an LLM making an app for you, it helps a lot to know how to describe what you want, and what the different concepts and such are called.

    It also helps a LOT that I have used LLMs for more than 3 years now and mainly to do coding stuff. So I have become better at “prompting” and the LLMs have gotten better tools for what they do. Claude Code is pretty amazing, but VS Codes agent feature is also quite strong and its actually better than Claude Code in some ways because of having such good integration that when you install extensions in VS Code the LLM can have access to information from those extensions as well.

    I have made a lot of apps where I did not look at the code at all. Of course an important thing to mention is that these apps are all hobby projects. At work I do not think I have done a full tool or app only using vibe coding. For production use I would not trust AI coded stuff enough to not double check it all… well, unless maybe its some local tool with a simple input and output requirement. If there is no web access needed, the possible security problems should be minimal.

    https://www.facebook.com/share/16yvB3udLn/

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Vibe Coding: The Shadow IT Problem No One Saw Coming
    Vibe coding promises easy AI-generated software but creates massive shadow IT risks for enterprises. Learn why this trend threatens security, compliance and scale.
    https://thenewstack.io/vibe-coding-the-shadow-it-problem-no-one-saw-coming/

    Reply
  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Problems With React Server Components
    React Server Components (RSCs) are struggling to find their foothold among developers, according to a recent panel at the React Summit 2025.
    https://thenewstack.io/the-problems-with-react-server-components/

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    “Learn to Code” Backfires Spectacularly as Comp-Sci Majors Suddenly Have Sky-High Unemployment
    “Every kid with a laptop thinks they’re the next Zuckerberg.”
    https://futurism.com/computer-science-majors-high-unemployment-rate

    It looks like the “learn to code” push is backfiring spectacularly for those who bought in.

    As Newsweek reports, recent college graduates who majored in computer science are facing high unemployment rates alongside the increasing probability of being laid off or replaced by artificial intelligence if and when they do get hired.

    In its latest labor market report, the New York Federal Reserve found that recent CS grads are dealing with a whopping 6.1 precent unemployment rate. Those who majored in computer engineering — which is similar, if not more specialized — are faring even worse, with 7.5 percent of recent graduates remaining jobless. Comparatively, the New York Fed found, per 2023 Census data and employment statistics, that recent grads overall have only a 5.8 percent unemployment rate.

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    A new worst coder has entered the chat: vibe coding without code knowledge
    In the age of AI, being able to make applications and create code has never been easier. But is it any good? Here’s what vibe coding is like for someone without technical skills.
    https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/08/07/a-new-worst-coder-has-entered-the-chat-vibe-coding-without-code-knowledge/

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Turn ideas into apps in minutes.
    Turn any sentence into a working app. Not a mockup, an actual app. Its not magic, but it might feel like it. Prepare to have your mind blown…
    https://go.famous.ai/app?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwMEB_hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHsiPoP8Y0wd-rHgh3KdBXVTjPxv2rnyvqtM-pUKSY6GG3d2zdLcG3wGBb5BJ_aem_EpOJ2eJv9x6Db9a74MPuJw

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Trust in AI coding tools is plummeting
    According to Stack Overflow’s 2025 developer survey.
    https://leaddev.com/technical-direction/trust-in-ai-coding-tools-is-plummeting

    A new Stack Overflow survey highlights a steep decline in trust and reliance on AI coding tools, as users get more discerning.

    Stack Overflow’s annual survey of nearly 50,000 developers acts as a useful benchmark of how software engineers are feeling, and this year’s results suggest a steep decline in sentiment around AI coding tools.

    This year, 33% of developers said they trust the accuracy of the outputs they receive from AI tools, down from 43% in 2024. At the same time, how favourably developers think of adding AI tools into their workflow fell steeply, from 72% in 2024 to 60% this year.

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The International Obfuscated C Code Contest is back for 2024
    Yes, 2024 – the prizes in the 40th anniversary edition prizes were just awarded
    https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/09/ioccc_2024/

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    AWS:n Kiro on uusi, laadukasta koodia tuottava apuri
    https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/17796-aws-n-kiro-on-uusi-laadukasta-koodia-tuottava-apuri

    Amazon Web Services (AWS) on julkistanut Kiron, uuden tekoälyavusteisen koodieditorin, jonka tarkoitus on viedä AI-kehitys prototyypeistä tuotantoon. Kiro eroaa monista muista tekoälyapureista siinä, että se ei tyydy pelkkään “promptaa ja koodaa” -malliin, vaan ohjaa kehittäjää suunnitelmallisempaan ja dokumentoidumpaan prosessiin.

    Perinteinen vibe-koodaus eli nopea, iteratiivinen prototypointi, jossa tekoälyn annetaan tuottaa koodia, on hauskaa ja hyödyllistä, mutta siihen liittyy ongelmia. AI tekee usein oletuksia, joita ei dokumentoida, ja lopputulos voi näyttää toimivalta mutta sisältää teknistä velkaa, heikkoa ylläpidettävyyttä tai puutteita turvallisuudessa ja skaalautuvuudessa. Kiron idea on ratkaista nämä ongelmat tuomalla AI-kehitykseen rakenteen ja suunnittelun.

    Kiron ydin on niin sanottu spec-driven development eli vaatimuksiin perustuva kehitys. Ennen kuin koodia kirjoitetaan, Kiro auttaa laatimaan speksit eli vaatimukset: käyttäjätarinat, hyväksymiskriteerit ja tekniset suunnitelmat. Näin oletukset tehdään näkyviksi ja niihin voidaan palata myöhemmin. Spesifikaatioiden pohjalta Kiro generoi automaattisesti myös suunnitteludokumentit, kuten kaaviot ja API-määrittelyt.

    Kun suunnitelmat on hyväksytty, Kiro luo niistä tehtävälistan (tasks.md), jossa työ jaetaan selkeisiin vaiheisiin. Jokainen tehtävä linkittyy vaatimuksiin, ja mukana ovat myös testit, lataustilat, mobiiliresponsiivisuus ja saavutettavuusvaatimukset. Kehittäjä voi sitten suorittaa tehtävät yksi kerrallaan, seurata etenemistä ja tarkastella AI-agentin tekemiä muutoksia.

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lisp In 99 Lines Of C With TinyLisp
    https://hackaday.com/2025/08/19/lisp-in-99-lines-of-c-with-tinylisp/

    As one of the oldest programming languages still in common use today, and essential for the first wave of Artificial Intelligence research during the 1950s and 60s, Lisp is often the focus of interpreters that can run on very low-powered systems. Such is the case with [Robert van Engelen]’s TinyLisp, which only takes 99 lines of C code and happily runs on the Z80-based Sharp PC-G850V(S) pocket computer with its 2.3 kB of internal RAM and native C support.

    https://github.com/Robert-van-Engelen/tinylisp

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    What are Forward Deployed Engineers, and why are they so in demand?
    Startups and scaleups are on a hiring spree for a software engineering role pioneered by Palantir. A deepdive into this role, and why FDEs are so popular in 2025
    https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/forward-deployed-engineers

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Shady School
    https://hackaday.com/2025/08/25/the-shady-school/

    We can understand why shaderacademy.com chose that name over “the shady school,” but whatever they call it, if you are looking to brush up on graphics programming with GPUs, it might be just what you are looking for.

    The website offers challenges that task you to draw various 2D and 3D graphics using code in your browser. Of course, this presupposes you have WebGPU enabled in your browser which means no Firefox or Safari. It looks like you can do some exercises without WebGPU, but the cool ones will need you to use a Chrome-style browser.

    https://shaderacademy.com/explore

    Reply
  22. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Android Bluetooth Connection
    https://hackaday.com/2025/08/27/the-android-bluetooth-connection/

    Suppose someone came to talk to you and said, “I need your help. I have a Raspberry Pi-based robot and I want to develop a custom Android app to control it.” If you are like me, you’ll think about having to get the Android developer tools updated, and you’ll wonder if you remember exactly how to sign a manifest. Not an appealing thought. Sure, you can buy things off the shelf that make it easier, but then it isn’t custom, and you have to accept how it works. But it turns out that for simple things, you can use an old Google Labs project that is, surprisingly, still active and works well: MIT’s App Inventor — which, unfortunately, should have the acronym AI, but I’ll just call it Inventor to avoid confusion.

    What’s Inventor? It lives in your browser. You lay out a fake phone screen using drag and drop, much like you’d use QT Designer or Visual Basic. You can switch views and attach actions using a block language sort of like Scratch. You can debug in an emulator or on your live phone wirelessly. Then, when you are ready, you can drop an APK file ready for people to download. Do you prefer an iPhone? There’s some support for it, although that’s not as mature. In particular, it appears that you can’t easily share an iPhone app with others.

    Is it perfect? No, there are some quirks. But it works well and, with a little patience, can make amazingly good apps. Are they as efficient as some handcrafted masterpiece? Probably not. Does it matter? Probably not. I think it gets a bad rep because of the colorful blocks. Surely it’s made for kids. Well, honestly, it is. But it does a fine job, and just like TinkerCad or Lego, it is simple enough for kids, but you can use it to do some pretty amazing things.

    How fast is it to create a simple Android app? Once you get used to it, it is very fast, and there are plenty of tutorials. Just for fun, I wrote a little custom web browser for my favorite website. It is hard to tell from the image, but there are several components present. The web browser at the bottom is obvious, and there are three oval buttons.

    https://appinventor.mit.edu/

    HADViewer
    https://gallery.appinventor.mit.edu/?galleryid=c482804f-e953-4d5f-922e-5ba983cc0f2b

    A simple demo of loading the Hackaday web site. Click the icon to go home or use the other buttons. If you are on the home page for an hour, the page refreshes.

    Reply
  23. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Quick Hack: The Phone To Stream Deck Conversion
    https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/quick-hack-the-phone-to-stream-deck-conversion/

    What do you do with those old Android or iPhone phones and tablets? You have plenty of options, but it is pretty easy to build your own stream deck with a little off-the-shelf software. What’s a stream deck, you ask? The name comes from its use as a controller for a live-streaming setup, but essentially, it’s an LCD touchscreen that can trigger things on your computer.

    The software I’m using, Deckboard, is a server for Windows or Linux and, of course, an Android app. The app is free with some limitations, but for under $4 you can buy the full version. However, even the free version is pretty capable. You can use an Android phone or tablet and you can connect to the PC with a USB cable or WiFi. I’ve found that even with WiFi, it is handy to keep the phone charged, so realistically you are going to have a cable, but it doesn’t necessarily have to connect to the host computer.

    Linux Setup

    Setup is very easy. The biggest hurdle is you might need to set up your firewall to allow the server to listen on port 8500 with TCP. There are a few small issues when installing with Linux that you might want to watch out for.

    Honestly, this is a hack that is more useful than it is difficult. But you can spend a lot of time tweaking that perfect setup. But it makes that old phone something you can use every day.

    Supercharge your workflow in a single tap!
    Deckboard helps you turns your Android/iOS devices into an overpowered macro pad for your PC
    https://www.deckboard.app/

    If you prefer a more rigorous hack, check out FreeDeck. Not that that’s the only one out there. If you want a really useful hack, it would be nice to reverse engineer Deckboard’s TCP protocol so we could have a Raspberry Pi server for this.

    Open Source Stream Deck Does It Without Touch Screens
    https://hackaday.com/2020/07/09/open-source-stream-deck-does-it-without-touch-screens/

    Sparkpad Sparks Joy For Streamers
    https://hackaday.com/2021/08/24/sparkpad-sparks-joy-for-streamers/

    Reply
  24. Tomi Engdahl says:

    David DiMolfetta / Nextgov/FCW:
    Sources and docs: a Russia-based Yandex employee maintains open-source tool fast-glob, embedded in 30 US DOD software packages and downloaded 70M times per week

    Report: Russia-based Yandex employee oversees open-source software approved for DOD use
    https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2025/08/report-russia-based-yandex-employee-oversees-open-source-software-approved-dod-use/407703/

    The package is listed inside Platform One’s Iron Bank, a vetted Defense Department software repository, people familiar say.

    A Russia-based Yandex employee is the sole maintainer of a widely used open-source tool embedded in at least 30 pre-built software packages in the Department of Defense, raising potential risks of covert data exfiltration through sensitive digital tools used by the U.S. military, according to research first seen by Nextgov/FCW.

    The tool, dubbed fast-glob, helps software developers operate on groups of files without having to write extra code, making it the preferred method for quickly searching and organizing project files.

    It’s used in over 5,000 projects worldwide and is downloaded some 70 million times per week, according to the findings out Wednesday from software supply chain security firm Hunted Labs.

    The maintainer is listed as Denis Malinochkin. As of publishing time, there is no known malicious code inside fast-glob, according to Hayden Smith, a Hunted Labs co-founder, who added that Malinochkin appears innocuous, though his standing as the only maintainer of the popular software package raises red flags.

    “A project that is that popular should not be maintained by just one person,” he said. “[Even] if you take all the geolocation and geopolitical atmospherics and you remove those … having a solo maintainer for a project you critically depend on is extremely risky.”

    The DOD’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, which advises the defense secretary on information technology, was alerted to the matter about three weeks ago, Smith added. Nextgov/FCW has reached out to the DOD, the Defense Information Systems Agency and Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency for comment.

    The fast-glob package is listed inside Platform One’s Iron Bank, the Pentagon’s vetted repository of software building blocks used by the U.S. military’s software developers and contractors to craft digital tools and applications, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The people were granted anonymity to be candid about its use inside DOD software systems.

    Yandex is a major Russian technology company that has been found to have extensive ties to the Kremlin and has promoted misinformation about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    In an email sent to Nextgov/FCW, Malinochkin said that he has been developing and maintaining fast-glob for over seven years, which began prior to his employment at Yandex. He said the tool’s source code is fully open and auditable by potential users and that its development or support has never been a part of his professional duties in his current job.

    “Nobody has ever asked me to manipulate fast-glob, introduce hidden changes to the project, or collect and share system data. I believe that open source is built on trust and diversity,” he wrote.

    In July, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum directing the Defense Department to “not procure any hardware or software susceptible to adversarial foreign influence that presents risk to mission accomplishment and must prevent such adversaries from introducing malicious capabilities into the products and services that are utilized by the department.”

    That memo came after ProPublica reported Microsoft had relied on China-based engineers to support its cloud services for the DOD. Microsoft has since severed those arrangements.

    Open-source projects rely on contributions from community members to keep them updated with patches. The updates are often discussed on forums with volunteer software maintainers.

    Historically, community practices have operated under the premise that all contributors are benevolent. That notion was challenged last February when a user dubbed “Jia Tan” tried to quietly plant a backdoor into XZ Utils, a file transfer tool used in several Linux builds that power software in leading global companies.

    “If you’re a nation state … you have a bunch of stuff that you’re doing fast, but you have other stuff that you’re doing very methodically, slowly or positioning strategically.” said George Barnes, the former deputy director of the National Security Agency.

    Russia’s state-centered economy also allows the Kremlin to compel firms to act on behalf of the nation’s interest, including the use of hacking and disinformation campaigns. Yandex is one of several major domestic tech companies that the Russian government can heavily rely on, Barnes said.

    “This piece of code has no known vulnerabilities. It’s ubiquitously leveraged and used globally, and it happens to have one maintainer sitting in Russia, and the [maintainer] might be totally fine,” he added, but “that situation subordinates him to a legal framework that’s not in his control.”

    Chinese, Russian and North Korean-affiliated hackers are covertly working to insert backdoor hijacks and exploits into major publicly-available software used by countless organizations, developers and governments around the world, according to findings from Strider Technologies released earlier this month.

    Russia has continued broad cyber activities despite recent U.S. efforts to bring the Kremlin to the negotiating table with Ukraine.

    Reply
  25. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The (Data) Plot Thickens
    https://hackaday.com/2025/08/28/the-data-plot-thickens/

    You’ve generated a ton of data. How do you analyze it and present it? Sure, you can use a spreadsheet. Or break out some programming tools. Or try LabPlot. Sure, it is sort of like a spreadsheet. But it does more. It has object management features, worksheets like a Juypter notebook, and a software development kit, in case it doesn’t do what you want out of the box.

    The program is made to deal with very large data sets. There are tons of output options, including the usual line plots, histograms, and more exotic things like Q-Q plots. You can have hierarchies of spreadsheets (for example, a child spreadsheet can compute statistics about a parent spreadsheet). There are tons of regression analysis tools, likelihood estimation, and numerical integration and differentiation built in.

    Fourier transforms and filters? Of course.

    If you’ve been putting off Jupyter notebooks, this might be your excuse to skip them. If you think spreadsheets are just fine for processing signals and other big sets, you aren’t wrong. But it sure is hard.

    LabPlot
    FREE, open source and cross-platform Data Visualization and Analysis software accessible to everyone and trusted by professionals
    https://labplot.org/

    Your First Data Import and Visualization in LabPlot
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngf1g3S5C0A

    LabPlot is a FREE, open source and cross-platform Data Visualization and Analysis software accessible to everyone. Download LabPlot now at https://labplot.kde.org/download/. In this short video you’ll learn how to import your data into LabPlot and visualize it quickly.

    Drops Of Jupyter Notebooks: How To Keep Notes In The Information Age
    https://hackaday.com/2019/02/22/drops-of-jupyter-notebooks-how-to-keep-notes-in-the-information-age/

    DSP Spreadsheet: The Goertzel Algorithm Is Fourier’s Simpler Cousin
    https://hackaday.com/2020/11/13/dsp-spreadsheet-the-goertzel-algorithm-is-fouriers-simpler-cousin/

    Reply
  26. Tomi Engdahl says:

    NodeOS is a free and opensource Lightweight operating system using Node.js as userspace. NodeOS is an operating system built entirely in Javascript and managed by npm. Any package in npm is a NodeOS package, that means a selection of more than 400000 packages.

    More https://github.com/NodeOS/NodeOS

    nixCraft LOL “lightweight”

    “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should”, said no one ever lol

    I’m still wondering how a computer handles ten quadrillion brackets, braces, and parenthesis without exploding. Someone turned a fork bomb into an entire OS.

    LISP had a baby…

    IMNSHO It looks like a Linux distribution with preinstalled nodejs.

    As a base container for a node.js app you’ll save hundreds of MiBs compared to a normal OS+node.js. The container on Docker hub is 46MIB for the entire OS!
    .
    you are delusional the os performance very sucks, only 1 process wtf, the features suck, the security sucks, a very suck os wtf lmao

    Lightweight and NPM packages are not made to be together

    At the first npm install you will get out of disk space and lose the “lightweight”. And that’s only for a file explorer….

    Ok so it’s not an operating system. Linux is the operating system, it’s just an interface between the user app and the operating system.

    Like Android isn’t an operating system it also sits on top of Linux.

    Linux is only the kernel, an operating system contains the kernel AND lots of other stuff

    The last update of this project is about 7 years ago, so it is stalled, or may even dead.

    Reply
  27. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Browser Wasn’t Enough, Google Wants To Control All Your Software
    https://hackaday.com/2025/08/28/the-browser-wasnt-enough-google-wants-to-control-all-your-software/

    A few days ago we brought you word that Google was looking to crack down on “sideloaded” Android applications. That is, software packages installed from outside of the mobile operating system’s official repository. Unsurprisingly, a number of readers were outraged at the proposed changes. Android’s open nature, at least in comparison to other mobile operating systems, is what attracted many users to it in the first place. Seeing the platform slowly move towards its own walled garden approach is concerning, especially as it leaves the fate of popular services such as the F-Droid free and open source software (FOSS) repository in question.

    But for those who’ve been keeping and eye out for such things, this latest move by Google to throw their weight around isn’t exactly unexpected. They had the goodwill of the community when they decided to develop an open source browser engine to keep the likes of Microsoft from taking over the Internet and dictating the rules, but now Google has arguably become exactly what they once set out to destroy.

    Google Will Require Developer Verification Even For Sideloading
    https://hackaday.com/2025/08/26/google-will-require-developer-verification-even-for-sideloading/

    Reply
  28. Tomi Engdahl says:

    I use these silly VS Code extensions to make coding way more fun (and they don’t help me become a better coder)
    https://www.xda-developers.com/silly-vs-code-extensions/

    It’s hard to argue that VS Code isn’t one of the most powerful code editors. What makes the tool stand out isn’t just its features or easy-to-use interface, though. Instead, it’s the ability to customize the tool and make it even more powerful by downloading extensions.

    Reply
  29. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Guest
    Developers lose focus 1,200 times a day — how MCP could change that
    https://venturebeat.com/ai/developers-lose-focus-1200-times-a-day-how-mcp-could-change-that/

    Software developers spend most of their time not writing code; recent industry research found that actual coding accounts for as little as 16% of developers’ working hours, with the rest consumed by operational and supportive tasks. As engineering teams are pressured to “do more with less” and CEOs are bragging about how much of their codebase is written by AI, a question remains: What’s done to optimize the remaining 84% of the tasks that engineers are working on?

    Keep developers where they are the most productive

    A major culprit to developer productivity is context switching: The constant hopping between the ever-growing array of tools and platforms needed to build and ship software. A Harvard Business Review study found that the average digital worker flips between applications and websites nearly 1,200 times per day. And every interruption matters. The University of California found that it takes about 23 minutes to regain focus after a single interruption fully, and sometimes worse, as nearly 30% of interrupted tasks are never resumed. Context switching is actually at the center of DORA, one of the most popular performance software development frameworks.

    In an era where AI-driven companies are trying to empower their employees to do more with less, beyond “just” giving them access to large language models (LLMs), some trends are emerging. For example, Jarrod Ruhland, principal engineer at Brex, hypothesizes that “developers deliver their highest value when focused within their integrated development environment (IDE)”. With that in mind, he decided to find new ways to make this happen, and Anthropic’s new protocol might be one of the keys.

    MCP: A protocol to bring context to IDEs
    Coding assistants, such as LLM-powered IDEs like Cursor, Copilot and Windsurf, are at the center of a developer renaissance. Their adoption speed is unseen. Cursor became the fastest-growing SaaS in history, reaching $100 million ARR within 12 months of launch, and 70% of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft Copilot.

    But these coding assistants were only limited to codebase context, which could help developers write code faster, but could not help with context switching. A new protocol is addressing this issue: Model Context Protocol (MCP). Released in November 2024 by Anthropic, it is an open standard developed to facilitate integration between AI systems, particularly LLM-based tools, and external tools and data sources. The protocol is so popular that there has been a 500% increase of new MCP servers in the last 6 months, with an estimated 7 million downloads in June,

    One of the most impactful applications of MCP is its ability to connect AI coding assistants directly to the tools developers rely on every day, streamlining workflows and dramatically reducing context switching.

    Take feature development as an example. Traditionally, it involves bouncing between several systems: Reading the ticket in a project tracker, looking at a conversation with a teammate for clarification, searching documentation for API details and, finally, opening the IDE to start coding. Each step lives in a different tab, requiring mental shifts that slow developers down.

    With MCP and modern AI assistants like Anthropic’s Claude, that entire process can happen inside the editor.

    For example, implementing a feature all within a coding assistant becomes:

    Pull in the ticket details using Linear MCP server;
    Surface relevant conversations using Slack MCP server;
    Bring in the right documentation using Glean MCP server
    Write the feature by asking Cursor to write a scaffolding for it.
    The same principle can apply to many other engineers workflow, for instance an incident response for SREs could look like:

    The same principle can apply to many other engineers workflow, for instance an incident response for SREs could look like:

    Pull an incident via Rootly MCP server
    Retrieve trace data through Sentry MCP server
    Import observability metrics via Chronosphere MCP server
    Resolve the bug that caused the incident by asking Claude Deskop

    Nothing new under the sun
    We’ve seen this pattern before. Over the past decade, Slack has transformed workplace productivity by becoming a hub for hundreds of apps, enabling employees to manage a wide range of tasks without leaving the chat window. Slack’s platform reduced context switching in everyday workflows.

    Riot Games, for example, connected around 1,000 Slack apps, and engineers saw a 27% reduction in time needed to test and iterate code, a 22% faster time to identify new bugs and a 24% increase in feature launch rate; all were attributed to streamlining workflows and reducing the friction of tool-switching.

    Now, a similar transformation is occurring in software development, with AI assistants and their MCP integrations serving as the bridge to all these external tools. In effect, the IDE could become the new all-in-one command center for engineers, much like Slack has been for general knowledge workers.

    MCP may not be enterprise ready
    MCP is a relatively nascent standard, for example, security wisem MCP has no built-in authentication or permission model, relying on external implementations that are still evolving There’s also ambiguity around identity and auditing — the protocol doesn’t clearly distinguish whether an action was triggered by a user or the AI itself, making accountability and access control difficult without additional custom solutions. Lori MacVittie, distinguished engineer and chief evangelist in F5 Networks’ Office of the CTO, says that MCP is “breaking core security assumptions that we’ve held for a long time.”

    Another practical limitation arises when too many MCP tools or servers are used simultaneously, for example, inside a coding assistant. Each MCP server advertises a list of tools, with descriptions and parameters, that the AI model needs to consider. Flooding the model with dozens of available tools can overwhelm its context window. Performance degrades noticeably as the tool count grows with some IDE integrations have imposed hard limits (around 40 tools in Cursor IDE, or ~20 tools for the OpenAI agent) to prevent the prompt from bloating beyond what the model can handle

    Finally, there is no sophisticated way for tools to be auto-discovered or contextually suggested beyond listing them all, so developers often have to toggle them manually or curate which tools are active to keep things working smoothly. Referring to that example of Riot Games installing 1,000 Slack apps, we can see how it might be unfit for enterprise usage.

    The past decade has taught us the value of bringing work to the worker, from Slack channels that pipe in updates to “inbox zero” email methodologies and unified platform engineering dashboards. Now, with AI in our toolkit, we have an opportunity to empower developers to be more productive. Suppose Slack became the hub of business communication.

    In that case, coding assistants are well-positioned to become the hub of software creation, not just where code is written, but where all the context and collaborators coalesce.

    Reply
  30. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Why Rust Will Help You Deliver Better Low-latency Systems and Happier Developers
    https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/low-latency-systems-happy-developers/

    Andrew Lamb, a veteran of database engine development, shares his thoughts on why Rust is the right tool for developing low-latency systems, not only from the perspective of the code’s performance, but also looking at productivity and developer joy. He discusses the overall experience of adopting Rust after a decade of programming in C/C++.

    Key Takeaways
    Rust offers C and C++-like performance while its memory safety features significantly reduce the likelihood of bugs related to memory management, such as race conditions and “use-after-free” errors.
    Rust’s Async feature provides a cooperative scheduling model designed for writing simple, non-blocking code for high-performance network I/O without blocking threads. The ‘await’ keyword efficiently manages control flow, while libraries like Tokio offer robust multi-threaded scheduling for network and CPU tasks.
    The tool chain is complete and user-friendly. The compiler provides very intuitive error messages and suggestions that guide developers towards the solution, while the integrated dependency tool is straightforward to use.
    Rust is good for low-level programming, once you get used to its programming model. Nevertheless, for plain web programming, there are better-suited tools.
    Multiple groups are adopting the programming language, most notably the CNCF ecosystem and Linux project.

    Reply
  31. Tomi Engdahl says:

    AGENTS.md Emerges as Open Standard for AI Coding Agents
    https://www.infoq.com/news/2025/08/agents-md/

    A new convention is emerging in the open-source ecosystem: AGENTS.md, a straightforward and open format designed to assist AI coding agents in software development. Already adopted by more than 20,000 repositories on GitHub, the format is being positioned as a companion to traditional documentation, offering machine-readable context that complements human-facing files like README.md.

    The concept is straightforward. While READMEs are optimized for developers—covering project introductions, contribution guidelines, and quick starts—AGENTS.md serves as a predictable, structured location for agent-specific instructions. These include setup commands, testing workflows, coding style preferences, and pull request guidelines.

    https://github.com/openai/agents.md

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*