Conversations about Software Engineering

Joy Clark talks with Chad Fowler about legacy software and immutable infrastructure. They begin by discussing legacy software and why the description 'legacy' shouldn't actually be a bad thing. Then they contrast how reusable libraries differ from a system of services which is flexible and can change over time. Chad then describes how they developed Wunderlist using a microservices architecture and answers questions about how to practically develop and test such a system and how to decrease coupling between components. They wrap up by discussing how the principles of immutable infrastructure can be applied to software development in general.

Joy Clark talks with Stefan Tilkov about software architecture. After discussing the definition of software architecture, they go on to cover what the role 'Software Architect' actually means and what tools and skills an architect needs to do their job. They also discuss several different architectural styles which can be used and look at the most common styles that are currently employed today. To help us on our quest to becoming software architects, Stefan also gives a great lists of resources that we can use as a starting point.

Eberhard Wolff talks with Martin Stadler about OpenTechSchool, an organization that helps people to learn about programming and software development. Topics include the different types of events and material OpenTechSchool offers and how OpenTechSchool enables a hands-on, empowering, and peer-driven approach. We also discuss the organization, the core values and how OpenTechSchool increases diversity. OpenTechSchool has a lot of partners and local chapters that take different approaches. Of course the show also talks about how to join OpenTechSchool, how to help and how to start your own chapter.

Eberhard Wolff talks with Oliver Gierke about Spring Data. The show starts with an overview of the Java framework Spring and its ecosystem. The focus of the show is Spring Data: A set of frameworks that support many different relational and NoSQL datastores. The show then discusses how Spring Data is developed and released. Another topic is how reactive programming influences persistence and how transactions make little sense for reactive architectures. Finally, the show covers Spring Data REST — a framework to expose Spring Data repositories as REST resources — and how this concept is useful beyond simple CRUD operations.

Stefan Tilkov talks to Jen Simmons about CSS, the standard for applying layout rules to HTML pages. Jen talks about the often misunderstood role of CSS in the Web stack, why it matters, and how it has grown ever more powerful over the course of time. Also included: Some discussion about why so many developers don’t like CSS and what to do about it, and new features coming to the CSS standard.