Bob Ward: SQL Server - Episode 321

Adrienne Braganza Tacke is an accomplished author and software engineer with a passion for educating others about software development. Choosing a path distinct from the expected trajectory of nursing, she pursued a degree in management information systems at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Over the course of nearly eight years in the field, she has contributed her expertise across multiple industries, including healthcare and higher education. Currently, she serves as a software development engineer at DebtTrader, where she embraces the challenge of modernizing fintech workflows traditionally dependent on spreadsheets.   Beyond her professional work, Adrienne is an international speaker, instructor, and dedicated advocate for STEM education. Her first book, Coding for Kids: Python, has consistently ranked among the top-selling children's programming books on Amazon. She frequently visits schools to inspire students with insights into software engineering and the transformative power of coding. When she’s not engaging with young aspiring developers, she speaks at tech conferences throughout the U.S. and Europe. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@AdrienneTacke) to stay updated on her latest endeavors.   Topics of Discussion: [3:20] Adrienne’s journey and the happy accidents and formative moments that led her to working in this field. [5:46] What does a developer advocate do? [7:04] Adrienne started teaching in 2017, when tech influencers were starting to become more popular. [9:02] There is no one-size-fits-all about the code review process, and what it looks like will be different for every team. [11:19] The price of ineffective communication. [15:30] The power of fixing things during development and before the code review. [19:10] Adrienne gives a few real-life examples of time wasters in code reviews. [22:08] More about Adrienne’s book, Looks Good to Me: Constructive Code Reviews, and how it can help streamline and save time.  [23:44] Like Adrienne’s chapter title, if you can automate it — do it. [26:51] There are still errors that won’t be caught by static analysis. [30:46] Some tips to remember when using AI, like making sure your titles are descriptive. [36:17] Maybe an “auto-polite” button is coming soon? We wish.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo Looks Good to Me: Constructive Code Reviews CodeRabbit   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

28 Apr 39min

April is a senior developer advocate and DevOps practice lead for GitHub, specializing in application transformation and DevOps ways of working. Her focus is working on Microsoft Azure to take customers on a journey from legacy technology to serverless and containers, where code comes first, while enabling them to take full advantage of DevOps. April was previously a cloud consultant and solution architect for various partners in the UK and brings her years of experience in helping customers plan their journey. She also serves as a Hashicorp Ambassador, dedicating much of her time to working with infrastructure as code (IaC). She enjoys making Azure and its features more accessible. Her technical expertise includes PowerShell, Golang, and occasionally TypeScript and C#. In her free time, April enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing, and scuba diving. Additionally, she is a triathlete who competes in Ironman and Half Ironman events.   Topics of Discussion: [1:57] April’s career journey — from U.S. data center outages and 72-hour shifts to discovering cloud and automation after relocating to the U.K. [3:53] How an early Azure migration in 2013 ignited her passion for infrastructure as code and DevOps. [5:33] GitHub’s evolution into a full end-to-end enterprise platform, with a major focus on security, scalability, and developer productivity. [6:51] Code Spaces: VS Code in the cloud with 60 hours free per user — solving compute and environment parity issues across teams. [10:00] GitHub’s internal use of Code Spaces: every GitHub employee (aka “Hubber”) uses it to work on the github.com codebase. [12:29] Code Spaces’ advantages in lab and hackathon settings, including speed, security, and reliability. [13:55] Breakdown of GitHub Copilot’s flavors: chat, inline suggestions, edits, pull request reviews, and agentic AI. [17:12] Real-world uses of Copilot Edits: generating documentation, writing tests, and making cohesive multi-file changes. [20:00] GitHub’s goal of enabling the “10x developer,” not just in speed but in quality, consistency, and creativity. [25:00] How AI tooling is changing how we think about architecture, code reuse, and shrinking monoliths into modular libraries. [30:00] Prompting strategies: how different cultures and languages impact the way developers interact with AI tools. [32:47] GitHub Workspaces: start from requirements, generate a plan, and get a head start on writing and converting code. [35:00] April’s belief that AI-driven development is already here, and edits are one of the best ways to experience that transformation now.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo .Net Aspire and Data API builder with the Community April on GitHub April on LinkedIn April on X Universe 2024: GitHub Embraces Developer Choice with Multi-Model Copilot, New App Tool GitHub Spark, and AI-Native Developer Experience CoPilot Workspace GitHub Spark   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

21 Apr 37min

Jerry Nixon is a Principal Program Manager on the SQL Server team focused on the Data API builder. He’s also a fanatic for #CSharp, #StarTrek, and Etymology. He also serves as a professor at Colorado Christian University.   Topics of Discussion: [3:34] Why Jerry describes his life as a pearl necklace. [5:15] Jerry recommends the book Never Eat Alone and the importance of community. [6:01] How engineers and parenting are aligned. [7:02] Jerry reflects on Microsoft’s history of evangelism, the rise of “opinionated” frameworks, and how .NET Aspire revives a form of proven prescriptive guidance. [9:35] Prescriptive guidance. [12:03] The inevitable evolution of .NET Aspire and how it simplifies container-based development by handling orchestration behind the scenes. [16:56] Paying more attention and awareness to the developer community. [18:30] How GraphQL fits into the Data API Builder experience, giving developers flexibility without needing to write complex backends. [21:40] Jerry talks about community feedback on Data API Builder and how real-world use cases help prioritize features and fix gaps in tooling. [31:02] Jerry’s perspective on building container-based solutions. [32:15] Data API Builder’s community involvement and upcoming features. [36:15] Docker Desktop. [38:58] The architectural concept of Data API Builder. [44:42] C# coding conventions at Microsoft and the friendly battles over things like naming, underscores, and formatting styles across internal teams.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo .Net Aspire and Data API builder with the Community Jerry on LinkedIn Jerry Nixon Github Colorado Christian University Data API builder for Azure Databases samples Common C# code conventions What is Data API Builder? Quickstart: Use Data API builder with SQL   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

14 Apr 50min

Stephen Toub is a Partner Software Engineer at Microsoft. Stephen has been at Microsoft for almost 24 years and has done it all. If it has to do with .NET, he’s been in it. And today, he looks after all the .NET libraries making sure .NET continues to be the fastest platform on the planet.  He ran the MSDN Magazine before it morphed into the docs and blogs of today. He was a leader in the concurrency and async and parallel programming developments, and now he’s turned his attention to pushing the AI envelope with .NET.   Topics of Discussion: [4:37] Stephen morphed a few of his many interests into the role he has today.  [6:04] How moments like the push for parallel computing, the open-sourcing of .NET, cross-platform support, and performance goals shaped Steven’s current focus. [7:37] Steven highlights the two major AI tracks: (1) AI-augmented tools that improve developer productivity, and (2) building AI capabilities into applications themselves. [10:37] The future of user interfaces.  [12:43] Why “agents” are basically advanced actor-based systems empowered by large language models and tool calling, enabling reasoning and orchestration beyond simple Q&A. [23:22] Model context protocol.  [24:08] A paradigm shift in system integration.  [30:24] How Stephen and the .NET libraries team factor out common AI abstractions for the ecosystem, so that different frameworks (Semantic Kernel, Onnx Runtime, Olama, etc.) can interoperate. [32:15] Steven gives examples of how minimal C# code, combined with locally hosted LLMs or cloud endpoints, can solve real tasks.    Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo Stephen on GitHub Stephen on LinkedIn Demystifying Retrieval Augmented Generation with .NET Suno csharp-sdk   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

7 Apr 37min

Bruno Capuano is a Principal Cloud Advocate at Microsoft where he empowers teams to build AI solutions with Azure using programming languages like C#, Python, and C++. His approach is to solve complex problems with minimal effort, delivering simple and efficient solutions in today’s fast-paced AI landscape. Bruno has led innovation in teams at Avanade across Canada and Europe, transforming cutting-edge technologies into practical business solutions. He is passionate about working with teams, helping them grow, achieve high productivity, and foster collaborative, positive environments. As an international speaker, he advocates for making AI accessible to everyone, empowering teams and organizations to harness its transformative potential. Outside of tech, he is a runner, a lifelong learner, and always looking for his next challenge—whether it’s mastering new skills or tackling a marathon.   Topics of Discussion: [5:08] Bruno explains how his passion for learning and community engagement led him to a role where he could dedicate himself to education and advocacy. [7:17] Why data scientists and new AI tools often favor Python first, and how Bruno and his team work to ensure .NET developers also have immediate access to modern AI capabilities. [10:31] The progression of getting developers into AI. [11:20] Starting with familiar tools like Notepad. [13:39] The “must have’s” for developers who want to start writing AI code. [17:20] The benefit of GitHub models. [23:47] Vector Databases & Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). [25:17] How vector databases store information using numerical representations and enable semantic search. [31:25] Bruno highlights how AI “skills” or “functions” can call external APIs to fetch real-time data.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo Bruno LinkedIn Generative AI for Beginners   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

31 Mar 38min

Per is an experienced software architect and developer with more than 19 years of experience in designing, developing, and testing software. He is currently serving as a Distinguished software developer at Delegate, a Microsoft Partner in Denmark.   Topics of Discussion: [3:02] More about Per’s background in nearly two decades in .NET and Azure consulting. [6:11] The concept of a boutique consultant. [7:00] Founding ATC-Net to share common .NET libraries and avoid duplicative coding. [10:02] Building trust with customers by open-sourcing “generic” components. [11:50] Creating a connector to run Olama (local LLMs) with Semantic Kernel. [20:08] Why Per “fell in love” with Semantic Kernel’s abstraction layers and extension possibilities. [21:44] The role of vector stores (like Azure Cognitive Search) in retrieval-augmented generation. [24:33] What do we mean by “vector” in the AI space? [26:39] What is a “text chunker”? [31:43] Azure AI search. [34:07] Finding the right tool for the right task.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo atc-net GitHub Per Kops LinkedIn Per Kops GitHub   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

24 Mar 35min

Patrick Escarcega is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Meserow Design, a company known for its excellence in developing and maintaining custom software solutions. His background is in software engineering and has been leading software teams for many years. His technical focus has been on Microsoft development and cloud technologies.    Topics of Discussion: [3:30] Patrick recalls the moment he transitioned from individual software developer to leading teams, highlighting the importance of understanding how software adds business value beyond just code. [5:00] Patrick describes the joy he rediscovered in coding when starting his own company, emphasizing the delicate balance between hands-on coding and leadership responsibilities. [7:50] The head chef and food scientist analogy. [9:26] The importance of creating a safe environment, a “pit of success,” so developers can naturally follow best practices without feeling constrained. [10:36] Why readable, maintainable code is crucial, especially for senior leaders whose time is spent reading code more than writing it. [13:27] Comparing software engineering creativity to building an engine from “invisible Lego bricks," emphasizes the hidden creativity involved in engineering solutions. [15:08] The importance of leaders giving developers space and freedom to craft innovative solutions, rather than overly prescribing methodologies. [17:00] Running integration tests. [20:41] Accessibility and WCAG compliance explained: Why accessibility should be an integral part of software development and testing workflows. [23:14] EqualWeb accessibility checker and Chrome browser extension. [25:02] Practical everyday use of AI in software development, especially GitHub Copilot, and why developers should embrace AI tools regularly to remain productive and competitive. [31:10] Patrick encourages developers to embrace AI and keep learning, emphasizing that continuous adaptation will keep careers vibrant over the next decade.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo Patrick Escarcega Meserow Design Engineering Practices for LLM Application Development     Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

17 Mar 32min

Daniel Roth is a Principal Product Manager on the ASP.NET team working on ASP.NET Core, Blazor, and other web features. He has previously worked on various parts of .NET, including System.Net, WCF, XAML, and ASP.NET. His passions include building frameworks for modern Web frameworks that are simple and easy to use.   Topics of Discussion: [3:15] Daniel shares his journey from back-end services to front-end development and his role in making .NET open-source and cross-platform. [6:10] Blazor and its impact on development. [8:32] A few of the strengths we get with .NET. [9:24] .NET 9 and performance improvements. [12:45] .NET 10 Preview 1 and new features. [17:32] Architectural guidance for Blazor applications. [30:17] The importance of handling state persistence to avoid memory bloat and security issues. [32:32] Observability and telemetry in Blazor. [36:28] Is the nature of the UI web user interface changing as we integrate AI technology and large language models and agents? [37:12] Integration of AI and Generative AI in Blazor. [37:38] The new Microsoft Extensions AI library for interfacing with chat services in .NET applications.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo Ep 274 with Daniel Roth Daniel Roth LinkedIn What's New for ASP.NET Core Blazor in .NET9 Daniel Roth — Author in .NET Blog Performance Improvements in .NET9 .NET Preview 1 is now available! ASP.NET Core in .NET 10 Preview 1 — Release Notes ASP.NET Core Roadmap for .NET 10 #59443   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

10 Mar 40min