Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers

Vilhelm von Ehrenheim, co-founder and chief AI officer of QA.tech, dives into the world of autonomous testing, sharing insights from his decade of experience in AI and data science. He explains the evolution from manual to automated to autonomous testing, emphasizing AI's transformative role. The discussion touches on challenges like AI bias and training complexities. Vilhelm highlights how autonomous testing reshapes QA roles, transitioning professionals into strategic positions while suggesting ways to upskill and adapt to the evolving tech landscape.

Abhinav Kimothi, co-founder and VP at Yarnit and author of A Simple Guide to Retrieval-Augmented Generation, dives into the world of RAG. He elucidates key concepts like large language models and context windows while addressing issues such as hallucinations in AI. The discussion reveals essential components for building RAG systems, including prompt engineering and data chunking. Abhinav also shares insights on the trade-offs between open-source and proprietary models, plus the future potential of RAG, from multi-hop reasoning to agentic AI.

Luca Palmieri, an expert in back-end development and author of 'Zero to Production in Rust,' dives into deploying Rust in real-world applications. He explores the challenges of writing robust Rust code, focusing on error handling, performance metrics, and optimizing development efficiency. Key topics include using Docker for lightweight deployments, enhancing compilation speed, and maintaining security in Rust applications. Palmieri also discusses structured logging, telemetry options, and the importance of Rust's async I/O model in boosting application performance.

Will McGugan, CEO of Textualize and creator of the Rich and Textual libraries, dives into the world of text-based user interfaces. He discusses how these interfaces enhance developer workflows and reduce distractions. The conversation includes advanced features like progress bars and the use of CSS for layouts in terminal applications. McGugan also addresses character encoding challenges and the importance of caching in improving performance. He encourages innovation in combining TUIs with AI applications, offering developers practical strategies and insights.

Carson Gross, creator of HTMX and Hyperscript, and a software engineering professor, discusses the innovative HTMX library. He highlights the growing complexity in web development and how HTMX embraces hypermedia principles to simplify processes. The conversation covers its architecture, integration strategies, and real-world applications, including a case study where a company transitioned from React to HTMX with impressive results. Carson also shares insights into the HTMX community and its roadmap for future development, promising a dynamic evolution in web applications.

Matthias Endler, a Rust developer and open-source maintainer, joins to discuss the art of prototyping in Rust. He highlights the unique advantages of Rust’s strict type system and ownership model for effective prototyping. Key strategies include a structured four-step process, mastering lifetimes for memory safety, and improving error handling with libraries like Anyhow. Matthias also covers best practices for transitioning from prototypes to production, focusing on code structure and robust documentation. It's a treasure trove for developers interested in harnessing Rust's capabilities!

Steve Summers, the Security lead for aerospace and defense systems at NI, dives into the vital topic of securing test and measurement equipment. He clarifies the distinctions between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) while discussing pressing security challenges faced within OT systems. The conversation spotlights the CompactRIO system's security intricacies, including its specialized Linux distribution and the importance of FPGAs. Additionally, they touch on evolving regulations and the need for robust cybersecurity practices in safety-critical industries.

Ashley Peacock, author of Serverless Apps on Cloudflare and an expert in serverless tech, shares insights on Cloudflare's role as a comprehensive developer platform. He discusses the nuances of dependency injection, the advantages of Cloudflare Workers over AWS Lambda, and features like R2 and D1 databases. Ashley elaborates on external databases' benefits, eventual consistency, and strategies for migrating from S3 to R2. Also highlighted are the effectiveness of durable objects for real-time apps and the importance of community resources for those starting with Cloudflare.

Eran Yahav, Professor of Computer Science at Technion, Israel, and CTO of Tabnine, speaks with host Gregory M. Kapfhammer about the Tabnine AI coding assistant. They discuss how the design and implementation allows software engineers to use code completion and perform tasks such as automated code review while still maintaining developer privacy. Eran and Gregory also explore how research in the field of natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLMs) has informed the features in Tabnine. Brought to you by IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Software magazine.

Malcolm Matalka, founder of Terrateam, shares insights on developing in OCaml without relying on frameworks. He explains the benefits of strong typing while discussing the seamless integration of front-end and back-end systems. Matalka highlights the importance of community support in a niche language and reflects on the challenges of using OCaml in a Go-centric world. The conversation also covers the pros and cons of monolithic architecture, type management complexities, and custom framework development, all emphasizing a leaner, more controlled software engineering approach.