[F#]

SAFE Stack: Functional Web Programming for .NET Core

Isaac Abraham

Learn how you can use the functional F# programming language to write full stack Web applications on .NET, using the open source SAFE stack. Isaac Abraham shows how to take the best bits of ASP .NET and JavaScript and push them to the max with F#.

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[Data Points]

Hybrid Database Migrations with EF Core and Flyway

Julie Lerman

During development, it’s common to use EF Core migration commands to not only create migration files but to also execute migrations directly on your development database. But in production this isn’t the best idea. Learn to combine EF Core migrations and Flyway to create an explicit mechanism to perform migrations on a production database.

[C#]

Accessing XML Documentation via Reflection

Zachary Patten

XML documentation on C#/F#/VB code isn’t included in the compiled code--it’s placed in a separate XML file. Because of this, you can’t normally access the documentation via reflection. However, with one loading function and a handful of extension methods on the reflection types, you can easily access the XML through reflection types.

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[The Working Programmer]

Python: Flow Control

Ted Neward

In the second part of his introductory series on Python, Ted Neward examines Python flow control structures, such as if/then statements, loops, and exceptions.

[Blockchain]

Exploring Blockchain Consensus

John deVadoss

The emergence of blockchain has spurred developers to study and scrutinize well-established principles and paradigms in distributed systems, and in doing so has catalyzed a wave of innovation. Learn how consensus algorithms work for blockchain and explore the widely adopted dBFT algorithm and its implementation in C#/.NET Core.

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[Artificially Intelligent]

Exploring R and the Tidyverse Suite

Frank La Vigne

Frank La Vigne continues his exploration of the R programming language for data science. This month he delves into the popular tidyverse packages, which simplify and streamline the data science process of load, prep, train and visualize.

[Blockchain]

DevOps for Blockchain Smart Contracts

Stefano Tempesta

Now that blockchain is a thing in enterprise software development, organizations are asking for guidance on how to deliver DevOps for their blockchain projects. Stefano Tempesta looks at core aspects of DevOps with a focus on best practices and tools to incorporate continuous delivery, continuous improvement, and infrastructure as code for the development of smart contracts for blockchain solutions.

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[Cutting Edge]

Using gRPC in a Microservice Architecture

Dino Esposito

The gRPC framework shines when used in a server-to-server scenario and preferably when caller and service evolve as part of the same development cycle. Dino Esposito shows how gRPC can be a powerful solution for microservice architectures.

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[Test Run]

Neural Binary Classification Using PyTorch

James McCaffrey

The goal of a binary classification problem is to make a prediction where the result can be one of just two possible categorical values, such as predicting the sex of a person based on their age, annual income, and so on. In this article you’ll learn how to perform binary classification using a deep neural network with the PyTorch code library.

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[Don't Get Me Started]

Who're You Looking At?

David S. Platt

The proliferation of facial recognition systems is proving an early test of how our civilization will manage AI. David Platt worries that governments lack the technical savvy to properly evaluate and manage this important emerging technology.

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[Editor's Note]

And Now a Word From Our Columnists

Michael Desmond

When MSDN Magazine closes shop after the November issue, we’ll be saying farewell to a gifted group of longtime columnists who have been the heart and conscience of the magazine