Welcome to the 655th Reading Notes. This edition explores embedding Python in .NET, working with stacked git branches, and an introduction to cloud-native. Plus, a quick tip for the Azure Portal and using local AI for code reviews.
Introduction to Cloud Native Computing (TNS Staff) - Very complete and interesting article that is the perfect point to get started with clout native application covering what it is the strategy the architecture everything
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
Welcome to another edition of my reading notes! This week, I’ve gathered a selection of insightful articles and resources covering topics like AI, cloud security, open source, and developer productivity. Whether you’re interested in best practices, new tools, or thought-provoking perspectives, there’s something here for everyone.
Dive in and enjoy the highlights!
Suggestion of the week
Copilot, The Good Parts: Efficiency (Rob Conery) - I love that post, it's so true! There are good and bad ways to use any tools. And I personally would really like seeing Rob build his stuff. Let's him know If you think like me.
Fantastic Alert Messages Using SweetAlert (Héctor Pérez ) - A great component to manage our alerts in C# instead of having JavaScript. That makes code easier to test when all is in the same language.
You DON’T Need Microservices for Serverless! (Derek Comartin) - A great post that explained the difference between cold coupling and monolithics versus microservices great post.
Open Source
How to convince your boss to sponsor Open Web Docs (Patrick Brosset) - Open source is important! And to contribute, it doesn't have to be code. Nice post that shares ideas and explains a few things about OSS.
Local code review with Docker and smollm2 before pushing to git (Gerardo Lopez) - This is a great idea! Definitely a good way to avoid the light of shame and be able to quickly validate that your code looks okay. It's also a great way to experiment free hook.
As developers, we're constantly looking for tools that can help us stay in the flow and be more productive. Today, I want to share a powerful tool that's been gaining traction in the developer community: GitKraken CLI. This command-line interface brings together several key features that modern developers love - it's AI-powered, terminal-based, and incredibly efficient for managing Git workflows.
GitKraken CLI (accessible via the gk command) stands out because it simplifies complex Git workflows while adding intelligent automation. Unlike traditional Git commands, it provides a more intuitive workflow management system that can handle multiple repositories simultaneously.
Getting Started
Installation is straightforward. On Windows, you can install it using:
winget install gitkraken.cli
Once installed, you'll have access to the gk command, which becomes your gateway to streamlined Git operations.
The Workflow in Action
Let's walk through a typical development session using GitKraken CLI:
1. Starting a Work Session
Instead of manually creating branches and switching contexts, you can start a focused work session:
gk w start "Add Behind my Cloud feed" -i "Add Behind my Cloud feed #1"
This single command:
Creates a new branch based on your issue/feature name
Switches to that branch automatically
Links the work session to a specific issue
Sets up your development environment for focused work
2. Managing Multiple Work Sessions
You can easily see all your active work sessions:
gk w list
This is particularly powerful when working across multiple repositories or juggling several features simultaneously.
3. Committing with Intelligence
After making your changes, adding files works as expected:
gk add .
But here's where the AI magic happens. Instead of writing commit messages manually:
gk w commit --ai
The AI analyzes your changes and generates meaningful, descriptive commit messages automatically. No more "quick fix" or "update stuff" commits!
4. Pushing and Creating Pull Requests
Publishing your work is equally streamlined:
gk w push
And when you're ready to create a pull request:
gk w pr create --ai
Again, AI assistance helps generate appropriate PR titles and descriptions based on your work.
5. Wrapping Up
Once your work is complete and merged, clean up is simple:
gk w end
This command:
Switches you back to the main branch
Deletes the feature branch, locally and on GitHub
Closes the work session
Leaves your repository clean and ready for the next task
Why This Matters
The beauty of GitKraken CLI lies in its ability to keep you in the zone. You don't need to:
Switch between multiple tools
Remember complex Git commands
Write commit messages from scratch
Manually manage branch lifecycle
Everything flows naturally from one command to the next, maintaining your focus on what matters most: writing code.
Multi-Repository Power
One of the standout features is GitKraken CLI's ability to manage multiple repositories simultaneously. This is invaluable for:
Microservices architectures
Full-stack applications with separate frontend/backend repos
Organizations with multiple related projects
Try It Yourself
GitKraken CLI is part of a broader suite of developer tools that GitKraken offers. The CLI itself is free to use, which makes it easy to experiment with and integrate into your workflow without any upfront commitment. If you find value in the CLI and want to explore their other tools, GitKraken has various products that might complement your development setup.
The learning curve is genuinely minimal since it builds on Git concepts you already know while adding helpful automation. I've found that even small workflow improvements can compound over time, especially when you're working on multiple projects or dealing with frequent context switching.
If you're curious about what else GitKraken offers beyond the CLI, you can explore their full product lineup here. For those who decide the Pro features would benefit their workflow, as an ambassador of GitKraken I can share my code to provide a 50% discount for your GitKraken Pro subscription.
The combination of AI assistance and intuitive commands addresses real pain points that many developers face daily. Whether GitKraken CLI becomes a core part of your toolkit will depend on your specific workflow, but it's worth trying given that it's free and takes just a few minutes to set up.
The best tools are the ones that get out of your way and let you focus on building. GitKraken CLI aims to do exactly that.
Welcome to another edition of my reading notes! This week brings some fascinating insights into AI's real-world impact, exciting developments in .NET and containerization, plus practical tools for improving our development workflows.
From local AI-powered code reviews to Docker security hardening and the upcoming .NET 10 features, there's plenty to explore.
AI
The promise that wasn’t kept (Salma Alam Maylor) - Interesting thoughts about AI and its impact on our work but also on our life, and the planet.
Inside GitHub: How we hardened our SAML implementation (Greg Ose, Taylor Reis) - Very interesting post that pushes the curtain a little bit so we could see behind the scene how this very used but notification system works and has been updated
Enhance productivity with AI + Remote Dev (Brigit Murtaugh, Christof Marti, Josh Spicer, Olivia Guzzardo McVicker) - I love the dev container environments, they are so useful! And I also use the remote one when I'm not on my dev device so easy. Happy to see that Copilot will be right there with me.
It's time for another edition of Reading Notes! This week brings exciting developments in the open source world, with major announcements from Microsoft making WSL and VS Code's AI features open source. We've also got updates on Azure Container Apps, .NET Aspire, and some great insights on developer productivity tools.
Let's dive into these interesting reads that caught my attention this week.
Cloud
Happy 5th Birthday Bicep! (Sam Cogan) - What?! Five years already! That's incredible, I remember all the discussion about how we make our business better and honestly, bicep is a big success. Congrats to the team
Have I Been Pwned 2.0 is Now Live! (Troy Hunt) - New look, new merch, and confetti, all without API breaking changes! Learn all about this major update in this post.
What's new in .NET Aspire 9.3 (David Pine) - Wow! How so many great new features can be added in a single version?! Aspire is a must for all .NET developers.
Accelerate Your .NET Upgrades with GitHub Copilot (McKenna Barlow) - That's the tool I've been waiting for ages! Adding a Copilot to the extension is the smartest move they could make. I'm going to update an app right away. I'll share more later
Open Source
Edit is now open source (Christopher Nguyen) - That's a great news! I installed it half through the post and it great! Fast, simple, and tiny!! Love it!
Agent mode for every developer (Katie Savage) - Great new for everyone as the agent mode become available in so many different editor. This post also contains videos to shows some scenarios.
Podcasts
Reimagining the Windows Terminal with Warp's Zach Lloyd (Scott Hanselman) - A very interesting talk with the CEO of Warp that answers so many questions I had about this very different terminal. Really interesting episode, and terminal too BTW)
The experience is enough (Salma Alam-Naylor) - Whether we like it or not, we are people creature. We all need to stop hiding behind our screens and get out there!
Welcome to this week's reading notes! I've found some great articles that caught my eye - from security tips for MCP servers to exciting updates in Rust and AI. Whether you're into cloud services, programming tools, or wondering about the future of coding with AI, there's something here for you.
Let's dive in!
Programming
The Aspire Compiler (David Fowler) - I really appreciate Aspire. It's one of the tools that completely changed my experience as a developer. Learning more about it is, without a doubt, interesting.
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
In this edition of ReadingNotes, we explore some fascinating topics in the world of cloud computing, programming, and AI. From integrating images with AI in C# to the latest updates in Git, there's something for everyone. Plus, don't miss out on insights into effective developer relations and a deep dive into a new AI agent for Docker.
Highlights from Git 2.48 (Taylor Blau) - A nice update with many new features and bug fixes. There are 93 contributors to this update. It's pretty impressive.
AI
Meet Gordon: An AI Agent for Docker (Christopher Petito) - Oh! I like those specialized AI! One thing that could be nice is Docker could make accessible an Ask Gordon plugin that other AI like Copilot could use.
Miscellaneous
How to be a Ghostbuster (Sean Killeen) - So many! I guess I knew it was possible that some, and I mean A very few exceptions but so many people and so little work!
Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
It's reading notes time! It is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
You also read something you liked? Share it!
Suggestion of the week
Easily dock and float tool windows (Mads Kristensen) - Oh my! One of the best post I read since a long time. It cannot me more accurate, funny, nor useful.
How to Build Frontend Apps 10x Faster (Anmol Baranwal) - An interesting tools that you install that act as middle man and helps while developing and testing.
Incorporate GitHub Copilot into your daily flow (Rhea,Sinem,Mika) - Copilot go more accessible!This post summarizes how Copilot will be easier to use with suggested code. That's a good example of product feedback well used, everybody wins!
It's reading notes time! It is a habit I started a long time ago, close to 600 weeks ago in fact, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
Syncing a git branch between Windows and WSL filesystems (Andrew Lock) - It's true that by habit or reflex most people will think of Git as centralized... But it's not! Once you understand that so many possibilities are available. This post both summarize that and shows and example.
Low Code
Testing Your Native AOT Applications - .NET Blog (Marco Rossignoli, Jakub Jareš, Jakub Chocholowicz) - With code ahead-of-time (AOT) we still need tests but how to do it with that stripped version. of .NET? This short tutorial shows how.
How to automate tasks in Windows (David Nield) - Seeing things getting done by some automation you built is a nice feelingThis short post introduces 4 tools that will get you started with automation.
It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
If you think you may have interesting content, share it!
Blazor WebAssembly Virtual File System Access (Michael Washington) - A nice tutorial the show us how to keep file (aka data) in the browser of the visitor. All the code is available.
It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
If you think you may have interesting content, share it!
Cloud
Backing up files to Azure blob storage with azcopy (Andrew Lock) - A very interesting solution to a situation we are all facing. Nice to see the OSS project (I didn't know that one) and smart way to use Azure.
Simpler auth for Blazor Web Apps with Auth0? (Jon Hilton) - A wonderful tutorial very well detailed that explains how to use Auth0 with Blazor server app and search some gotchas so our experience goes smoother.
It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
If you think you may have interesting content, share it!
.NET MAUI on Linux with Visual Studio Code (Bruno Capuano) - This is pretty interesting! Instead of having a Windows vm on my Linux laptop I could run natively ...I'll need to try that!
Miscellaneous
Announcing Microsoft Copilot Studio (Jared Spataro, C) - Copilot Studio was for sure one of the big announcement during Microsoft Ignite. Learn more about what it is, what it does, and how you can get it in this post.
On day 2 of GitKon 2023, I presented a short beginner-friendly introduction to Git without using any "command lines". Too many are still using USB keys today to share files and collaborate on documents. When asked why they don't use Git, the answer is most likely that it's too complicated, too technical, and too much work.
Here is the good news, it doesn't need to be! This video shares the why and how Git is for everyone and share simple tips to make the how accessible!
It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
If you think you may have interesting content, share it!
Cloud
Wolverine and Serverless (Jeremy d Miller) - The secrets is in the details! Wolverine is good with persistent environment, learn how to fine-tune it so its also good in short live (aka serverless) environment.
Defining a Database with Tony Baer (Screaming in the Cloud) - I was smiling all along that episode. It's such a great question! There a so many variation of databases these days and different data sources!
Failing Well with Dr. Amy Edmondson (A Bit of Optimism) - It's all about how we can change our relationship with failures and start “failing well”. I like that! She's the author of Right Kind of Wrong, a new addition to my to-read stack.
J. Tower: Modernization Strangler Fig Pattern - Episode 263 (Azure DevOps Podcast) - Modernization could seams simple... right? But it's not! There are many traps. There many challenges that are waiting for you and you need to to the things for the right reasons. Nice episode.
Monday! It is time to share my reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all blog posts that catch my interest during the week.
If you think you may have interesting content, share it!
Debugging distributed systems is hard! (Dennis Frühauff) - This is a very nice post that explains clearly a situation. How many of us have been in this situation before where you try to debug a system and it's just so hard?
Healthcare and Life Sciences Blog (Kyle Raymond) - This is a cool tutorial/ example that explains what is and how to use semantic Kernel.
It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
If you think you may have interesting content, share it!
It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
If you think you may have interesting content, share it!
It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.
If you think you may have interesting content, share it!
Adventures in Dapr: Episode 0 - Introduction (James Dawson) - This first post of the series provides us details about the plans and why Dapr seams interesting as a resource for this project.
A Fancy Hover Effect For Your Avatar (Temani Afif) - Wow! From my point of views this look loke magic. With only one HTML element and a few lines of CSS... Bravo!
Blazor and Azure OpenAI (Michael Washington) - Cool demo using OpenAI API. Because yes ChatGPT is fun but there are APIs to build real apps.
341: Frank Masters In-App Subscriptions (Merge Conflict) - A big thank you to Frank and James for sharing that journey. We too often only ear about the happy path, and it's great to listen to all those challenges you incountered and how you managed to move forward.
Embracing The Fall with Carla Hall (A Bit of Optimism) - YES! So true! Falling instead of failling. Like a very wise man told me long time ago, the important is to bounce; get back on your feet and standup.
Already time to share new reading notes. Here is a list of all the articles, and blog posts that catch my interest during the week.
If you think you may have interesting content, share it!
Cloud
Introduction to DevSecOps on Azure (Daniel Krzyczkowski) - DevSecOps is a real thing and it's accessible for all. This post explains what it is and provides examples of how it could be implemented at a high level.
Adding color to bracket pairs (Mads Kristensen) - A call for feedback on an up common feature of Visual Studio. Rainbow Brackets yes it will colorize the brackets but what should be the options?
DevOps monitoring: The Why, What, and How of DevOps monitoring (Hiren Dhaduk) - This is an excellent post to get us to think about our first step. It explains the reason why we should care and briefly lists a few tools available today on the market to help.
