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Category: Misc Languages

Script Tasks in Azure DevOps Pipelines

Published 2024-07-17 by Kevin Feasel

Justin Bird builds a script task:

There are several dedicated script tasks that can be used for different purposes, some of the tasks have shortcut tasks which require much less input and are arguably easier to read. In the examples below, I have included the required inputs needed to run the scripts but in most cases, other optional inputs are available.

This looks pretty similar to the way you’d do it in GitHub Actions workflows as well—no surprise there, considering that the same group of people who built pipelines in ADO handled Actions in GitHub.

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Building a Full-Stack App with Kafka and Node.js

Published 2024-07-12 by Kevin Feasel

Lucia Cerchie builds an application:

A well-known debate: tabs or spaces? Sure, we could set up a Google Form to collect this data, but where’s the fun in that? Let’s settle the debate, Kafka-style. We’ll use the new confluent-kafka-javascript client (not in general availability yet) to build an app that produces the current state of the vote counts to a Kafka topic and consumes from that same topic to surface them to a JavaScript frontend. 

Why are we using this client in particular? It comes from Confluent and is intended for use with Apache Kafka® and Confluent Platform. It’s compatible with Confluent’s cloud offering as well. It builds on concepts from the two most popular Kafka JavaScript client libraries: KafkaJS and node-rdkafka. The functionality is based on node-rdkafka, however, it also provides a way to interface with the library via methods similar to those in KafkaJS due to their developer-friendy nature. There are two APIs: the first implements the functionality based on node-rdkafka; the second is a promisified API with the methods akin to those in KafkaJS. By choosing this client, we can access wide functionality and have a smooth developer experience via the dev-friendly methods.

Click through for the code and explanation. Meanwhile, tabs in my heart, spaces in my job.

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Building a Data API (with POST Operations) using Data API Builder

Published 2024-07-09 by Kevin Feasel

Eduardo Pivaral digs into DAB:

In the previous tip on Data API Builder (DAB) for SQL Server, we discussed how REST APIs provide a secure and platform-agnostic method to share database information using REST or GRAPHQL and how DAB simplifies the process of creating data APIs without the need for extensive coding or third-party tools.

What can we do if we want POST operations? Is it possible to achieve? What other options do we have if we want to implement Data API solutions in our production environments?

Read on to learn more about how this works.

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An Overview of Spark in Microsoft Fabric

Published 2024-06-20 by Kevin Feasel

Reza Rad gives people a primer on Apache Spark:

Microsoft Fabric runs some workloads under the Spark engine, but what is it really? In this article, I’ll take you through the question of what Spark is, What benefits it has, how it is associated with Fabric, what configurations you have, and other things you need to know about it.

Reza talks a bit about history, interaction with languages, etc. As a quick addition to the languages list, you can use .NET languages like F# and C# with Spark, though it does involve setting up dotnet/spark and there are some open questions about its future. And I’m not even sure you could get it to work with Microsoft Fabric.

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Converting Numbers into Roman Numerals with C#

Published 2024-06-11 by Kevin Feasel

Adron Hall changes numbering schemes:

Today, I’ll dive into a fascinating challenge: converting modern numbers into their ancient Roman numeral counterparts. The task is straightforward but intricate, involving a programming challenge that takes any positive integer from 1 to 3999 and converts it into the corresponding Roman numeral.

To convert regular decimal numbers into Roman numerals, one must follow a set of rules based on the values and combinations of specific Roman numeral characters. Here’s a brief summary of the conversion process:

Click through for the translation rules and how to do this in C#. Now I’m thinking about how to do this in F# and thinking tail-call recursion. I might give that a try on my own and blog about it if I come up with something neat.

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Cross-Correlation of Time Series to Identify Time Lags in SAS

Published 2024-05-28 by Kevin Feasel

Kevin Scott and David Frede notice the pattern:

Batch manufacturing involves producing goods in batches rather than in a continuous stream. This approach is common in industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and materials processing, where precise control over the production process is essential to ensure product quality and consistency. One critical aspect of batch manufacturing is the need to manage and understand inherent time delays that occur at various stages of the process.

In the glass manufacturing industry, which operates under the principles of batch manufacturing, precisely controlling the furnace temperature is essential for producing high-quality glass. The process involves melting raw materials like silica sand, soda ash, and limestone at high temperatures, where maintaining the correct temperature is crucial.

Read on to see an example of how you can automate the identification of a time lag using cross-correlation techniques.

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Discriminated Unions in F# and C#

Published 2024-05-08 by Kevin Feasel

The NDepend blog talks discriminated unions:

In recent years, there has been a notable surge in inquiries from the C# community regarding language-level support for C# Discriminated Unions. What individuals truly desire is the ability to express complex data structures more elegantly and effectively.

This blog post offers a thorough introduction to simulating Discriminated Unions (DUs) in C# programs, highlighting their usefulness.

Discriminated Unions, also known as “or” types (because you select one from the set of options), are really powerful concepts in functional programming. And this article gives you a way to simulate the approach in C#, at least until C# catches up to F# in this aspect.

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Listen and Notify in Postgres

Published 2024-05-06 by Kevin Feasel

Brandur Leach shows how to use PostgreSQL’s listen/notify capabilities:

Listen/notify in Postgres is an incredible feature that makes itself useful in all kinds of situations. I’ve been using it a long time, started taking it for granted long ago, and was somewhat shocked recently looking into MySQL and SQLite to learn that even in 2024, no equivalent exists.

In a basic sense, listen/notify is such a simple concept that it needs little explanation. Clients subscribe on topics and other clients can send on topics, passing a message to each subscribed client. The idea takes only three seconds to demonstrate using nothing more than a psql shell:

Read on to learn more about the notifier pattern. What’s interesting is that the notifier patter, which adds a fair bit of structure to this very simple process, makes it work a good bit like SQL Server’s Service Broker.

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IAsyncEnumerable in C# 8

Published 2024-04-25 by Kevin Feasel

Camilo Reyes shows off an interface:

The IAsyncEnumerable interface was introduced to address the limitations of the IEnumerable interface and the Task class. This way, you can stream asynchronous data and process it efficiently as soon as it becomes available.

In this take, you will learn how to work with IAsyncEnumerable to asynchronously stream a big table and extract the data in a ETL process. You will also learn the difference between IAsyncEnumerable and IEnumerable and how to use IAsyncEnumerable in your everyday work. Then, you will look at comparisons between the two different approaches and why one is better than the other in certain scenarios.

Read on for a demonstration and dive into how IAsyncEnumerable implementations compare to IEnumerable in terms of memory utilization.

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pl/dotnet Version 0.99

Published 2024-04-18 by Kevin Feasel

Brick Abode announces F# and C# support within Postgres:

pl/dotnet adds full support for C# and F# to PostgreSQL. 0.99 is our public beta release; we wish to share its amazingness with the world.

  • We support all PL operations: functions, procedures, DO, SPI, triggers, records, SRF, OUT/INOUT, table functions, etc
  • We natively support 40 out of 46 standard user types, the most of any external PL
  • Fully NPGSQL-compatible, and SPI is exposed through the NPGSQL API for maximum compatibility
  • In our benchmarks, C# and F# are the fastest Procedural Languages in PostrgreSQL
  • All features are fully tested for both C# and F#, with 1013 unit tests
  • 100% free software under the PostgreSQL license

This is a beta release; we invite usage and welcome feedback.

Look at me, side-eyeing SQL Server and how SQLCLR still doesn’t have F# support. I still maintain that the single biggest mistake Microsoft made around SQLCLR was adopting the “safe” and “unsafe” mode language. C# developers understood that “unsafe” meant you could get access to pointers and other internals that .NET languages typically hide from us. But try explaining that to a DBA, who doesn’t understand the language or the concepts.

On the bright side, .NET languages are the fastest procedural languages for Postgres, so that’s pretty neat. H/T Sergey Tihon.

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