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Tag: programming

  • Programming in Assembly Is Brutal, Beautiful, and Maybe Even a Path to Better AI

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    Rollercoaster Tycoon wasn’t the most fashionable computer game out there in 1999. But if you took a look beneath the pixels—the rickety rides, the crowds of hungry, thirsty, barfing people (and the janitors mopping in their wake)—deep down at the level of the code, you saw craftsmanship so obsessive that it bordered on insane. Chris Sawyer, the game’s sole developer, wrote the whole thing in assembly.

    Certain programming languages, like Python or Go or C++, are called “high-level” because they work sort of like human language, written in commands and idioms that might fit in at a poetry slam. Generally speaking, a piece of software like a compiler transforms this into what the machine really reads: blocks of 1s and 0s (or maybe hex) that tell actual transistors how to behave. Assembly, the lowest of the “low-level” languages, has a near one-to-one correspondence with the machine’s native tongue. It’s coding straight to metal. To build a complex computer game from assembly is like weaving a tapestry from shedded cat fur.

    Why would anyone do this? I recently asked Sawyer, who lives in his native Scotland. He told me that efficiency was one reason. In the 1990s, the tools for high-level programming weren’t all there. Compilers were terribly slow. Debuggers sucked. Sawyer could avoid them by doing his own thing in x86 assembly, the lingua franca of Intel chips.

    We both knew that wasn’t the real reason, though. The real reason was love. Before turning to roller coasters, Sawyer had written another game in assembly, Transport Tycoon. It puts players in charge of a city’s roads, rail stations, runways, and ports. I imagined Sawyer as a model-train hobbyist—laying each stretch of track, hand-sewing artificial turf, each detail a choice and a chore. To move these carefully crafted pixels from bitmaps to display, Sawyer had to coax out the chip’s full potential. “RollerCoaster Tycoon only came about because I was familiar with the limits of what was possible,” he told me.

    Working within the limits? A foreign idea, perhaps, in this age of digital abundance, when calling a single function in an AI training algorithm can engage a million GPUs. With assembly, you get one thing and one thing only, and it is the thing you ask for—even, as many a coder has learned the hard way, if it is wrong. Assembly is brutal and beautiful that way. It requires you to say exactly what you mean.

    I’ve done assembly’s creators a disservice. They wanted things to be easier, not harder. I imagine they were tired of loading up punchcards and flipping switches on their steampunk leviathans. Perhaps they dreamed of a world like ours, where computers can do so much with such minimal guidance.

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    Gregory Barber

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  • Attention, Spoiled Software Engineers: Take a Lesson from Google’s Programming Language

    Attention, Spoiled Software Engineers: Take a Lesson from Google’s Programming Language

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    Many of today’s programmers—excuse me, software engineers—consider themselves “creatives.” Artists of a sort. They are given to ostentatious personal websites with cleverly hidden Easter eggs and parallax scrolling; they confer upon themselves multihyphenate job titles (“ex-Amazon-engineer-investor-author”) and crowd their laptops with identity-signaling vinyl stickers. Some regard themselves as literary sophisticates. Consider the references smashed into certain product names: Apache Kafka, ScyllaDB, Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

    Much of that, I admit, applies to me. The difference is I’m a tad short on talents to hyphenate, and my toy projects—with names like “Nabokov” (I know, I know)—are better off staying on my laptop. I entered this world pretty much the moment software engineering overtook banking as the most reviled profession. There’s a lot of hatred, and self-hatred, to contend with.

    Perhaps this is why I see the ethos behind the programming language Go as both a rebuke and a potential corrective to my generation of strivers. Its creators hail from an era when programmers had smaller egos and fewer commercial ambitions, and it is, for my money, the premier general-purpose language of the new millennium—not the best at any one thing, but nearly the best at nearly everything. A model for our flashy times.

    If I were to categorize programming languages like art movements, there would be mid-century utilitarianism (Fortran, COBOL), high-theory formalism (Haskell, Agda), Americorporate pragmatism (C#, Java), grassroots communitarianism (Python, Ruby), and esoteric hedonism (Befunge, Brainfuck). And I’d say Go, often described as “C for the 21st century,” represents neoclassicism: not so much a revolution as a throwback.

    Back in 2007, three programmers at Google came together around the shared sense that standard languages like C++ and Java had become hard to use and poorly adapted to the current, more cloud-oriented computing environment. One was Ken Thompson, formerly of Bell Labs and a recipient of the Turing Award for his work on Unix, the mitochondrial Eve of operating systems. (These days, OS people don’t mess with programming languages—doing both is akin to an Olympic high jumper also qualifying for the marathon.) Joining him was Rob Pike, another Bell Labs alum who, along with Thompson, created the Unicode encoding standard UTF-8. You can thank them for your emoji.

    Watching these doyens of programming create Go was like seeing Scorsese, De Niro, and Pesci reunite for The Irishman. Even its flippantly SEO-unfriendly name could be forgiven. I mean, the sheer chutzpah of it. A move only the reigning search engine king would dare.

    The language quickly gained traction. The prestige of Google must’ve helped, but I assume there was an unmet hunger for novelty. By 2009, the year of Go’s debut, the youngest of mainstream languages were mostly still from 1995—a true annus mirabilis, when Ruby, PHP, Java, and JavaScript all came out.

    It wasn’t that advancements in programming language design had stalled. Language designers are a magnificently brainy bunch, many with a reformist zeal for dislodging the status quo. But what they end up building can sometimes resemble a starchitect’s high-design marvel that turns out to have drainage problems. Most new languages never overcome basic performance issues.

    But from the get-go, Go was (sorry) ready to go. I once wrote a small search engine in Python for sifting through my notes and documents, but it was unusably sluggish. Rewritten in Go, my pitiful serpent grew wings and took off, running 30 times faster. As some astute readers might have guessed, this program was my “Nabokov.”

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    Sheon Han

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  • Some Mad Genius Put ChatGPT on a TI-84 Graphing Calculator

    Some Mad Genius Put ChatGPT on a TI-84 Graphing Calculator

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    On Saturday, a YouTube creator called ChromaLock published a video detailing how he modified a Texas Instruments TI-84 graphing calculator to connect to the internet and access OpenAI’s ChatGPT, potentially enabling students to cheat on tests. The video, titled “I Made the Ultimate Cheating Device,” demonstrates a custom hardware modification that allows users of the graphing calculator to type in problems sent to ChatGPT using the keypad and receive live responses on the screen.

    ChromaLock began by exploring the calculator’s link port, typically used for transferring educational programs between devices. He then designed a custom circuit board he calls “TI-32” that incorporates a tiny Wi-Fi-enabled microcontroller, the Seed Studio ESP32-C3 (which costs about $5), along with other components to interface with the calculator’s systems.

    It’s worth noting that the TI-32 hack isn’t a commercial project. Replicating ChromaLock’s work would involve purchasing a TI-84 calculator, a Seed Studio ESP32-C3 microcontroller, and various electronic components, and fabricating a custom PCB based on ChromaLock’s design, which is available online.

    The creator says he encountered several engineering challenges during development, including voltage incompatibilities and signal integrity issues. After developing multiple versions, ChromaLock successfully installed the custom board into the calculator’s housing without any visible signs of modifications from the outside.

    To accompany the hardware, ChromaLock developed custom software for the microcontroller and the calculator, which is available open source on GitHub. The system simulates another TI-84, allowing people to use the calculator’s built-in “send” and “get” commands to transfer files. This allows a user to easily download a launcher program that provides access to various “applets” designed for cheating.

    One of the applets is a ChatGPT interface that might be most useful for answering short questions, but it has a drawback in that it’s slow and cumbersome to type in long alphanumeric questions on the limited keypad.

    Beyond the ChatGPT interface, the device offers several other cheating tools. An image browser allows users to access pre-prepared visual aids stored on the central server. The app browser feature enables students to download not only games for post-exam entertainment but also text-based cheat sheets disguised as program source code. ChromaLock even hinted at a future video discussing a camera feature, though details were sparse in the current demo.

    ChromaLock claims his new device can bypass common anti-cheating measures. The launcher program can be downloaded on-demand, avoiding detection if a teacher inspects or clears the calculator’s memory before a test. The modification can also supposedly break calculators out of Test Mode, a locked-down state used to prevent cheating.

    While the video presents the project as a technical achievement, consulting ChatGPT during a test on your calculator almost certainly represents an ethical breach and/or a form of academic dishonesty that could get you in serious trouble at most schools. So tread carefully, study hard, and remember to eat your Wheaties.

    This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.

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    Benj Edwards, Ars Technica

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  • TV legend Art Moore retires after 53 remarkable years with WABC

    TV legend Art Moore retires after 53 remarkable years with WABC

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    NEW YORK (WABC) — It was a bittersweet night for us at WABC, as we honored someone who has been at the station for decades.

    Employees gathered for a retirement party to celebrate Art Moore on Wednesday night.

    You probably know Art from his appearances on “Live with Kelly and Mark,’ but he’s been an integral part of our team behind the scenes serving as our Vice President of Programming.

    Art has been a part of the ABC family for 53 years. He joined us here at WABC in 1989.

    He began his career at WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York when ABC was known as Capital Cities/ABC.

    He then worked as the director of programming at WPVI in Philadelphia for many years before joining WABC.

    As head of programming, he has played a role in countless series and specials that helped shape WABC’s identity and the station’s enduring relationship with viewers.

    Kelly and Mark will honor Art for the rest of this week — with a special celebration on Friday.

    You can watch ‘Live with Kelly and Mark’ every weekday at 9 a.m. on ABC 7.

    Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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    WABC

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  • How to Create Your Own Browser Extension

    How to Create Your Own Browser Extension

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    Most of us spend a lot of time inside a web browser. If you’re a Chrome, Firefox, or Edge user, then you’ll know these browsers come with a huge number of third-party extensions to augment the features already built into the software.

    But what if you need some kind of specific extra functionality, some tool or feature that’s not covered by existing add-ons? Then it might be time to consider writing your own browser extension. That might sound daunting, but It’s not that difficult to do once you learn how. And once you’ve created a custom extension, you can either keep it for your own private use or make it public so anyone can use it.

    Some coding knowledge is required, so you’ll need to learn the basics of how web pages and scripts are written if you don’t already know them. If you’re a beginner, you can start small and work your way up. There are also a lot of helpful resources out there on the web if you need them, everything from code libraries to online courses.

    Get Started

    You’re going to need an idea for an extension you can write.

    Photograph: David Nield

    There are certain components that make up a browser extension. First is the manifest, which takes the filename manifest.json and contains various bits of metadata identifying the extension and what it does. You put the name of the extension in the manifest, describe what it does, and specify a default action that the extension carries out.

    Check out the manifest file format documentation provided by Google for Chrome. You can see some examples there, including a minimal manifest only containing the basics. The manifest points to all of the other required files for the extension, which should be kept in the same folder as you develop it.

    Some of the files the manifest points to are the icon files, which visually represent your extension in the browser. Users will look for your icon to see that your extension is running, and they’ll click on the icon to access the extension’s settings or to disable it. You should create a 128 x 128-pixel icon as a minimum, and icons at other sizes (as listed here) are recommended, so the extension looks the same everywhere it appears in the browser, from the settings screen to the tab bar. If you don’t provide an icon, a generic one showing the first letter of the extension name will be used instead.

    You then have your scripts, which do the actual work of the extension and can come in a variety of forms: HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) for basic web design, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for more advanced styling and manipulation of objects on the web, and JavaScript to do the bulk of the programming tasks (assuming your extension does something more than simply loading a page on screen).

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    David Nield

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  • The AI-Powered Future of Coding Is Near

    The AI-Powered Future of Coding Is Near

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    I am by no means a skilled coder, but thanks to a free program called SWE-agent, I was just able to debug and fix a gnarly problem involving a misnamed file within different code repositories on the software-hosting site GitHub.

    I pointed SWE-agent at an issue on GitHub and watched as it went through the code and reasoned about what might be wrong. It correctly determined that the root cause of the bug was a line that pointed to the wrong location for a file, then navigated through the project, located the file, and amended the code so that everything ran properly. It’s the kind of thing that an inexperienced developer (such as myself) might spend hours trying to debug.

    Many coders already use artificial intelligence to write software more quickly. GitHub Copilot was the first integrated developer environment to harness AI, but lots of IDEs will now automatically complete chunks of code when a developer starts typing. You can also ask AI questions about code or have it offer suggestions on how to improve what you’re working on.

    Last summer, John Yang and Carlos Jimenez, two Princeton PhD students, began discussing what it would take for AI to become a real-world software engineer. This led them and others at Princeton to come up with SWE-bench, a set of benchmarks for testing AI tools across a range of coding tasks. After releasing the benchmark in October, the team developed its own tool—SWE-agent—to master these tasks.

    SWE-agent (“SWE” is shorthand for “software engineering”) is one of a number of considerably more powerful AI coding programs that go beyond just writing lines of code and act as so-called software agents, harnessing the tools needed to wrangle, debug, and organize software. The startup Devin went viral with a video demo of one such tool in March.

    Ofir Press, a member of the Princeton team, says that SWE-bench could help OpenAI test the performance and reliability of software agents. “It’s just my opinion, but I think they will release a software agent very soon,” Press says.

    OpenAI declined to comment, but another source with knowledge of the company’s activities, who asked not to be named, told WIRED that “OpenAI is definitely working on coding agents.”

    Just as GitHub Copilot showed that large language models can write code and boost programmers’ productivity, tools like SWE-agent may prove that AI agents can work reliably, starting with building and maintaining code.

    A number of companies are testing agents for software development. At the top of the SWE-bench leaderboard, which measures the score of different coding agents across a variety of tasks, is one from Factory AI, a startup, followed by AutoCodeRover, an open source entry from a team at the National University of Singapore.

    Big players are also wading in. A software-writing tool called Amazon Q is another top performer on SWE-bench. “Software development is a lot more than just typing,” says Deepak Singh, vice president of software development at Amazon Web Services.

    He adds that AWS has used the agent to translate entire software stacks from one programming language to another one. “It’s like having a really smart engineer sitting next to you, writing and building an application with you,” Singh says. “I think that’s pretty transformative.”

    A team at OpenAI recently helped the Princeton crew improve a benchmark for measuring the reliability and efficacy of tools like SWE-agent, suggesting that the company might also be honing agents for writing code or doing other tasks on a computer.

    Singh says that a number of customers are already building complex backend applications using Q. My own experiments with SWE-bench suggest that anyone who codes will soon want to use agents to enhance their programming prowess, or risk being left behind.

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    Will Knight

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  • We’re Still Waiting for the Next Big Leap in AI

    We’re Still Waiting for the Next Big Leap in AI

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    When OpenAI announced GPT-4, its latest large language model, last March, it sent shockwaves through the tech world. It was clearly more capable than anything seen before at chatting, coding, and solving all sorts of thorny problems—including school homework.

    Anthropic, a rival to OpenAI, announced today that it has made its own AI advance that will upgrade chatbots and other use cases. But although the new model is the world’s best by some measures, it’s more of a step forward than a big leap.

    Anthropic’s new model, called Claude 3.5 Sonnet, is an upgrade to its existing Claude 3 family of AI models. It is more adept at solving math, coding, and logic problems as measured by commonly used benchmarks. Anthropic says it is also a lot faster, better understands nuances in language, and even has a better sense of humor.

    That’s no doubt useful to people trying to build apps and services on top of Anthropic’s AI models. But the company’s news is also a reminder that the world is still waiting for another AI leap forward in AI akin to that delivered by GPT-4.

    Expectation has been building for OpenAI to release a sequel called GPT-5 for more than a year now, and the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, has encouraged speculation that it will deliver another revolution in AI capabilities. GPT-4 cost more than $100 million to train, and GPT-5 is widely expected to be much larger and more expensive.

    Although OpenAI, Google, and other AI developers have released new models that out-do GPT-4, the world is still waiting for that next big leap. Progress in AI has lately become more incremental and more reliant on innovations in model design and training rather than brute-force scaling of model size and computation, as GPT-4 did.

    Michael Gerstenhaber, head of product at Anthropic, says the company’s new Claude 3.5 Sonnet model is larger than its predecessor but draws much of its new competence from innovations in training. For example, the model was given feedback designed to improve its logical reasoning skills.

    Anthropic says that Claude 3.5 Sonnet outscores the best models from OpenAI, Google, and Facebook in popular AI benchmarks including GPQA, a graduate-level test of expertise in biology, physics, and chemistry; MMLU, a test covering computer science, history, and other topics; and HumanEval, a measure of coding proficiency. The improvements are a matter of a few percentage points though.

    This latest progress in AI might not be revolutionary but it is fast-paced: Anthropic only announced its previous generation of models three months ago. “If you look at the rate of change in intelligence you’ll appreciate how fast we’re moving,” Gerstenhaber says.

    More than a year after GPT-4 spurred a frenzy of new investment in AI, it may be turning out to be more difficult to produce big new leaps in machine intelligence. With GPT-4 and similar models trained on huge swathes of online text, imagery, and video, it is getting more difficult to find new sources of data to feed to machine-learning algorithms. Making models substantially larger, so they have more capacity to learn, is expected to cost billions of dollars. When OpenAI announced its own recent upgrade last month, with a model that has voice and visual capabilities called GPT-4o, the focus was on a more natural and humanlike interface rather than on substantially more clever problem-solving abilities.

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    Will Knight

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  • Say hello to Alvik: Arduino’s game-changing robot is the beginning of a great learning adventure!

    Say hello to Alvik: Arduino’s game-changing robot is the beginning of a great learning adventure!

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    LUGANO, SWITZERLAND – As part of its mission to make robotics fun and accessible for all, Arduino is launching a brand-new programmable robot – the Arduino Alvik. Catering to teachers, students, programmers and innovators alike, this versatile and robust platform provides boundless opportunities for hands-on learning and creativity.

    Alvik stands out for its unprecedented ease of programming. Its integration of MicroPython – a simple-to-read programming language interpreter optimized for microcontrollers – means users can quickly bring their ideas to life from just a single line of code. Once the basics are mastered, they can then progress to more complex robotics projects that are tailored to their skill level and interests.

    Alvik is designed to empower young learners and lower the entry barrier to the fascinating world of robotics. With the upcoming integration of block-based programming, it is positioned to support primary school education, making coding accessible and engaging for younger learners.

    The robot’s compact and robust design hosts uncompromising functionality. Powered by the trusted Arduino Nano ESP32, the Alvik boasts an impressive array of high-quality sensors and motion control systems that enable it to perceive and interact with its surroundings. With the additional sensor ports and connectors, these integrated sensors allow users to transform Alvik into a rover, bulldozer, delivery robot, or automated inspection robot for a variety of applications – both in classroom learning and DIY projects. And that’s just the start of the creative learning experience! 

    Fabio Violante, CEO of Arduino, shares his vision: “Alvik isn’t just a robot; it’s a bridge to advanced robotics. It’s meticulously crafted to ensure that anyone interested in robotics can start with the basics and advance to complex projects. We asked our engineers to make no compromises on technology, and they delivered a platform that will surprise many different categories of users. We envision and encourage any sort of hacks for this open robot.”

    Key highlights of the Arduino Alvik include:

    • Start programming in no time: Alvik streamlines the learning curve in robotics with a comprehensive programming suite that includes MicroPython and the Arduino language. And Alvik soon plans to introduce block-based coding, further enhancing accessibility for younger students.
    • Unlock robotics potential with multiple integrated sensors: Alvik’s Time of Flight matrix distance sensors, RGB color and line-following array sensors, along with its six-axis gyroscope and accelerometer, allow users to tackle many innovative, real-world projects. From obstacle avoidance to smart warehouse automation, the possibilities are endless!
    • Enjoy advanced motor control: Alvik leverages motors with encoders, advanced motor drivers, and a dedicated MCU.
    • Customize and expand with Alvik’s extension capabilities: Alvik comes equipped with LEGO® Technic™ connectors, allowing users to personalize the robot and expand its capabilities. Additionally, it features M3 screw connectors for custom 3D or laser-cut designs.
    • Amplify Alvik’s flexibility for dynamic movement: The Servo, I2C Grove, and I2C Qwiic connectors allow users to expand Alvik’s potential and take robotics projects to a whole new level. Add motors for controlling movement and robotic arms, or integrate extra sensors for data collection and analysis – the choice is yours. 
    • CSTA and NGSS-aligned curriculum for education: Teachers, students and self-learners have access to a free, easy-to-follow Explore Robotics and MicroPython course developed by Arduino to help them understand the core principles of robotics and MicroPython through project-based learning concepts. 

    For more information about this innovative new robot, visit the Alvik store page now.

    About Arduino

    Arduino is the leading open-source hardware and software company in the world. Born to provide an easy-to-use platform for anyone making interactive projects, Arduino has reached a growing community and adapted to new needs and challenges, branching out into products for IoT, wearables, 3D printing, and embedded environments. As of today, the Arduino community includes over 33 million active users.

    With Arduino Education, Arduino supports educational institutions and educators around the world in bringing STEAM subjects to life in the classroom with hands-on kits and digital content that make learning engaging, for students at any age and stage.

    eSchool News Staff
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    ESchool News Staff

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  • Inside the Cult of the Haskell Programmer

    Inside the Cult of the Haskell Programmer

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    At the same time, I understood almost immediately why Haskell was—and still is—considered a language more admired than used. Even one of its most basic concepts, that of the “monad,” has spawned a cottage industry of explainers, analogies, and videos. A notoriously unhelpful explanation, famous enough to be autocompleted by Google, goes: “A monad is just a monoid in the category of endofunctors.”

    The language is also more despised than explored. Steve Yegge, a popular curmudgeon blogger of yesteryear, once wrote a satirical post about how, at long last, the Haskell community had managed to find the one “industry programmer who gives a shit about Haskell.” For programmers like Yegge, Haskell is a byword for a kind of overintellectualized, impractical language with little industry applicability.

    What Yegge didn’t understand, however, is that using Haskell is rarely a pragmatic decision. It is an intellectual, even aesthetic, one. In its essence, Haskell has more in common with the films of Charlie Kaufman than other programming languages: highly cerebral, charmingly offbeat, and oddly tasteful; appreciated by those in the know and judged by outsiders as pretentious. Haskell is, one might say, a cult classic.

    That Haskell never gained widespread adoption exemplifies a paradoxical truth in software engineering: Great programming languages aren’t always great for programming.

    Haskell is not inherently more difficult to learn than something like C, but the two languages pose different challenges. Writing in C is akin to precision engineering, requiring the kind of attention demanded of a skilled horologist. But Haskell code is, really, code-shaped mathematical expressions. C is a quintessential engineer’s language. Haskell is a pure mathematician’s.

    A good engineer’s and a good mathematician’s aptitudes don’t always overlap. The industry’s not-so-well-kept secret is that most programmers aren’t as good at math or logic as you might think. This is mostly fine. After all, many doctors would make poor molecular biologists, few lawyers are legal philosophers, and the great majority of MBAs know zilch about econometrics. But this means few programmers can really master Haskell. This includes me, of course, whose legs weaken at the sight of such expressions as “F-coalgebra” and “typeclass metaprogramming.”

    Still, when I think about Haskell, a line about Martin Amis’ prose comes to mind: “the primacy he gives to style over matter.” Haskell programmers are style supremacists, and it’s nothing to apologize for. In an industry often fixated on utility and expediency, the Haskell community should not feel obligated to summon evidence of its usefulness. Instead, it should simply retort: What’s the problem with useless intellectual exercises?

    Because the thing about useless exercises is they don’t stay useless for long. Even when “industry programmers” shunned Haskell, language designers took note. In recent years, a Haskell-style paradigm has come into vogue because of the treasury of benefits it offers: rendering certain categories of bugs impossible by design, making a program’s correctness more provable, and enabling easy parallel computation. Some of the most anticipated updates featured in new versions of imperative languages are those inspired by functional programming. In the end, Backus’ anti–von Neumann plea was heard. Programming has been liberated.

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    Sheon Han

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  • Stack Overflow Users Are Revolting Against an OpenAI Deal

    Stack Overflow Users Are Revolting Against an OpenAI Deal

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    On Monday, Stack Overflow and OpenAI announced a new API partnership that will integrate Stack Overflow’s technical content with OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI assistant. The deal has sparked controversy among Stack Overflow’s user community, with many expressing anger and protest over the use of their contributed content to support and train AI models.

    “I hate this. I’m just going to delete/deface my answers one by one,” wrote one user on sister site Stack Exchange. “I don’t care if this is against your silly policies, because as this announcement shows, your policies can change at a whim without prior consultation of your stakeholders. You don’t care about your users, I don’t care about you.”

    Stack Overflow is a popular question-and-answer site for software developers that allows users to ask and answer technical questions related to coding. The site has a large community of developers who contribute knowledge and expertise to help others solve programming problems. Over the past decade, Stack Overflow has become a heavily utilized resource for many developers seeking solutions to common coding challenges.

    Under the announced partnership, OpenAI will utilize Stack Overflow’s OverflowAPI product to improve its AI models using content from the Stack Overflow community—officially incorporating information that many believe it had previously scraped without a license. OpenAI will also “surface validated technical knowledge from Stack Overflow directly into ChatGPT, giving users easy access to trusted, attributed, accurate, and highly technical knowledge and code backed by the millions of developers that have contributed to the Stack Overflow platform for 15 years,” according to Stack Overflow.

    In return, OpenAI plans to provide attribution to the Stack Overflow community within ChatGPT, but how the company will do that exactly is unclear. Stack Overflow will also use OpenAI technology in its development of OverflowAI, an AI model announced in July 2023 that uses an LLM to provide answers to developer questions.

    While the companies tout the collaboration’s benefits, many Stack Overflow users have expressed their displeasure with the deal. This is especially true considering that until very recently, Stack Overflow seemed to take a negative stance toward generative AI in general, banning answers written using ChatGPT. It was also widely reported last year that ChatGPT’s popularity had severely reduced Stack Overflow’s traffic, though the company seemed to later refute that, claiming faulty analysis by outsiders.

    Since the announcement, some users have attempted to alter or delete their Stack Overflow posts in protest, arguing that the move steals the labor of those who contributed to the platform without a way to opt out. In retaliation, Stack Overflow staff have reportedly been banning those users while erasing or reverting the protest posts. On Monday, a Stack Overflow user named Ben took to Mastodon to share his experience of getting suspended after posting a protest message:

    Stack Overflow announced that they are partnering with OpenAI, so I tried to delete my highest-rated answers.

    Stack Overflow does not let you delete questions that have accepted answers and many upvotes because it would remove knowledge from the community.

    So instead I changed my highest-rated answers to a protest message.

    Within an hour mods had changed the questions back and suspended my account for 7 days.

    Stack Overflow moderators have stated that once posts are made, they become “part of the collective efforts” of other contributors and should only be removed under extraordinary circumstances, according to The Verge. Stack Overflow’s terms of service also state that users cannot revoke permission for Stack Overflow to use their contributed content.

    While Stack Overflow owns user posts, the site uses a Creative Commons 4.0 license that requires attribution. We’ll see if the ChatGPT integrations, which have not rolled out yet, will honor that license to the satisfaction of disgruntled Stack Overflow users. For now, the battle continues.

    This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.

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    Benj Edwards, Ars Technica

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  • Inside the Creation of the World’s Most Powerful Open Source AI Model

    Inside the Creation of the World’s Most Powerful Open Source AI Model

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    This past Monday, about a dozen engineers and executives at data science and AI company Databricks gathered in conference rooms connected via Zoom to learn if they had succeeded in building a top artificial intelligence language model. The team had spent months, and about $10 million, training DBRX, a large language model similar in design to the one behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But they wouldn’t know how powerful their creation was until results came back from the final tests of its abilities.

    “We’ve surpassed everything,” Jonathan Frankle, chief neural network architect at Databricks and leader of the team that built DBRX, eventually told the team, which responded with whoops, cheers, and applause emojis. Frankle usually steers clear of caffeine but was taking sips of iced latte after pulling an all-nighter to write up the results.

    Databricks will release DBRX under an open source license, allowing others to build on top of its work. Frankle shared data showing that across about a dozen or so benchmarks measuring the AI model’s ability to answer general knowledge questions, perform reading comprehension, solve vexing logical puzzles, and generate high-quality code, DBRX was better than every other open source model available.

    AI decision makers: Jonathan Frankle, Naveen Rao, Ali Ghodsi, and Hanlin Tang.Photograph: Gabriela Hasbun

    It outshined Meta’s Llama 2 and Mistral’s Mixtral, two of the most popular open source AI models available today. “Yes!” shouted Ali Ghodsi, CEO of Databricks, when the scores appeared. “Wait, did we beat Elon’s thing?” Frankle replied that they had indeed surpassed the Grok AI model recently open-sourced by Musk’s xAI, adding, “I will consider it a success if we get a mean tweet from him.”

    To the team’s surprise, on several scores DBRX was also shockingly close to GPT-4, OpenAI’s closed model that powers ChatGPT and is widely considered the pinnacle of machine intelligence. “We’ve set a new state of the art for open source LLMs,” Frankle said with a super-sized grin.

    Building Blocks

    By open-sourcing, DBRX Databricks is adding further momentum to a movement that is challenging the secretive approach of the most prominent companies in the current generative AI boom. OpenAI and Google keep the code for their GPT-4 and Gemini large language models closely held, but some rivals, notably Meta, have released their models for others to use, arguing that it will spur innovation by putting the technology in the hands of more researchers, entrepreneurs, startups, and established businesses.

    Databricks says it also wants to open up about the work involved in creating its open source model, something that Meta has not done for some key details about the creation of its Llama 2 model. The company will release a blog post detailing the work involved to create the model, and also invited WIRED to spend time with Databricks engineers as they made key decisions during the final stages of the multimillion-dollar process of training DBRX. That provided a glimpse of how complex and challenging it is to build a leading AI model—but also how recent innovations in the field promise to bring down costs. That, combined with the availability of open source models like DBRX, suggests that AI development isn’t about to slow down any time soon.

    Ali Farhadi, CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, says greater transparency around the building and training of AI models is badly needed. The field has become increasingly secretive in recent years as companies have sought an edge over competitors. Opacity is especially important when there is concern about the risks that advanced AI models could pose, he says. “I’m very happy to see any effort in openness,” Farhadi says. “I do believe a significant portion of the market will move towards open models. We need more of this.”

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  • Google’s Deal With Stack Overflow Is the Latest Proof That AI Giants Will Pay for Data

    Google’s Deal With Stack Overflow Is the Latest Proof That AI Giants Will Pay for Data

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    Last year Stack Overflow became one of the first websites to announce it would charge AI giants for access to content used to train chatbots. Now the popular Q&A service for coders has signed up its first customer—Google—in what CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar says is the start of a “meaningful” new stream of revenue.

    The deal is significant, because it remains unclear how broadly Google and other AI developers will pay for content needed for AI projects. Millions of books and websites have fueled the development of AI systems, but most publishers have not been compensated, and some are suing over what they allege is misuse. Many publishers, including Stack Overflow, appear threatened by ChatGPT and other generative AI products, which can answer queries that would have previously sent coders their way.

    The deal will see Google’s cloud division use questions and answers from Stack Overflow about Google Cloud services to provide coding assistance and technical support through a version of Google’s Gemini chatbot. Google’s cloud computing customers will also be able to ask questions through Google Cloud’s command-line interface. “Their AI may not have all the answers, and so we have a huge ability to help complete that loop,” Chandrasekar says. “We are the biggest place where community knowledge is curated and validated.”

    Gemini will summarize answers drawn from Stack Overflow in its own words but include the company’s logo, a link back to the original material, and the username of the site contributor who supplied it. The companies plan to demonstrate the system at Google Cloud Next, the search company’s annual cloud conference in April, and launch it soon after.

    Chandrasekar says there are no significant restrictions on how Google Cloud can use Stack Overflow data, meaning it can be used to train large language models and other AI systems. “Where we want to stand firm on is—nonnegotiable things for us— trust, accuracy, quality, and attribution back to the sources of these AI outputs,” he says.

    He declined to say how much Stack Overflow is being paid by Google for the data. “This will be a meaningful commercial offering for us in the near term, medium term, and long term,” Chandrasekar says.

    Covert Scraping

    Google and other AI developers have previously gathered data from Stack Overflow and other websites without much notice. As demand for generative AI technologies has surged—and the valuations of the companies developing them has rocketed—the websites supplying the foundational text have begun demanding what they view as their fair share. Fortunately for Stack Overflow, prospective customers have heeded the message, Chandrasekar says. “We’re not having to chase people,” he says.

    Stack Overflow data is particularly beneficial to AI systems that generate computer code, which have proven to be popular with software engineers and a significant source of revenue for Microsoft and OpenAI.

    The new Stack Overflow deal comes just a week after Google reached a licensing agreement to hoover up data from Reddit, the discussion forums operator, whose content has helped chatbots’ ability to converse. Reddit had unveiled plans to start charging for data access just before Stack Overflow had last year.

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  • The 2024 Python for Software Engineering Bootcamp Certification Bundle is $24.99 | Entrepreneur

    The 2024 Python for Software Engineering Bootcamp Certification Bundle is $24.99 | Entrepreneur

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    Coding with Python might be one of the most versatile and applicable skills an IT professional could have. If you’re looking to add to your skill set in the new year, then consider investing in an affordable educational resource focused on Python development. If that sounds valuable, then you could, for example, get The 2024 Python for Software Engineering Bootcamp Certification Bundle on sale for just $24.99 (reg. $420) through January 14th only.

    This bundle features seven courses and nearly 170 hours of content on coding with Python. It kicks off with a helpful introduction in the form of The Complete Python Course, which is rated 4.6/5 stars on average by verified purchasers. It shows you how to start learning to code with Python even with zero pre-existing knowledge or experience. It breaks down what you can do with Python, like building databases, developing web content, scraping the web, and more.

    Some of the other focuses of courses in this bundle include machine learning with Python, concurrent and parallel programming, Python for software engineering, and more.

    These courses are all taught by instructors from Packt Publishing, which maintains an impressive 5-star instructor rating for its reliable and informative e-learning experiences geared toward IT specialists and aspiring programmers.

    Get The 2024 Python for Software Engineering Bootcamp Certification Bundle on sale for just $24.99 (reg. $420) through January 14th at 11:59 p.m. PT.

    Prices subject to change.

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  • Learn to Program in Excel for $10 | Entrepreneur

    Learn to Program in Excel for $10 | Entrepreneur

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    Microsoft Excel is an iconic program that has been used by administrative professionals and analytics specialists for decades. Learning to program with Excel can save any modern professional tons of time while opening a world of organizational and developmental possibilities. Through January 7th only, you can get The Complete Microsoft Excel Course Including How to Program in Excel for just $10 (reg. $40).

    This 13-hour course features breakdowns of many of Excel’s most valued and helpful functions. It will have detailed and focused sessions on data visualization, programming with Excel and VBA, and collecting and processing analytics with the software.

    Discover why over 1.5 million students have taken this course already and how it’s maintained an average 4.4/5-star rating across all that traffic. Across the course’s 200+ lectures, you can find helpful breakdowns on basic formulas and functions within Excel, how to create charts, generate data sets, how to create pivot tables, and much more.

    The course is taught by award-winning MBA professor and venture capitalist Chris Haroun, who has an average rating of 4.5/5 stars for his well-researched courses and e-learning experiences. Having a background in raising and managing over one billion dollars throughout his career, Haroun is well positioned to provide this helpful piece of education on Microsoft Excel.

    Don’t wait too long to secure an educational resource that will benefit your professional life for years to come.

    The Complete Microsoft Excel Course Including How to Program in Excel is only $10 (reg. $40) through January 7th at 11:59 p.m. PT.

    Prices subject to change.

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  • Get an Education in Python with This Top-Rated Bundle, Now Only $19.99 for the Holidays | Entrepreneur

    Get an Education in Python with This Top-Rated Bundle, Now Only $19.99 for the Holidays | Entrepreneur

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    As an entrepreneur, you must constantly adapt to a changing business environment. Unfortunately, even if you want to learn new skills, it can be difficult to head back to the classroom with your busy schedule — that’s where online courses come in handy.

    You can now learn to program from the comfort of your couch with the 2023 Complete Python Certification Boot Camp Bundle. This bundle is packed with 12 courses filled with over 130 hours of instruction. It’s taught by top instructors and can be yours for only $19.99.

    Want to stop spending money outsourcing all of your programming needs? The 2023 Complete Python Certification Boot Camp Bundle provides a well-rounded education on all things Python, with brand new courses on the popular programming language available whenever best fits your busy schedule.

    Taught by top instructors, like Zenva Academy, rated 4.4 stars, you can begin with a good intro, Python Foundations. This course, which has 4.9 stars from past students, shows you how versatile Python can be, ultimately instructing you how to set up your own Python project by the time you’re finished.

    Keep up your Python education with other courses like Zenva Academy’s Intro to Coding with Python Turtle, which covers the basics of coding as you start implementing algorithms with programming. Once you have a solid foundation, you can advance to courses like Jose Salvatierra’s The Complete Python Course: Learn Python by Doing in 2023, which shows you exactly how Python can help you in today’s job market.

    Master Python from home with The 2023 Complete Python Certification Boot Camp Bundle, on sale now for $19.99 (reg. $84) for a limited time.

    Prices subject to change.

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  • American Student Assistance Announces Strategic Alliance with Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship

    American Student Assistance Announces Strategic Alliance with Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship

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    BOSTON – American Student Assistance ® (ASA), a national nonprofit changing the way kids learn about careers and navigate a path to postsecondary education and career success, today announced that the organization has entered into a 10-year, $25 million affiliation agreement with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), the nation’s leading entrepreneurship education organization.

    Through this strategic alliance, NFTE and ASA will expand access to high-quality entrepreneurship education programs, services, and opportunities for middle and high schoolers from rural, marginalized, and economically disadvantaged communities—both in-person and digitally—through school district partnerships, curriculum development and collaborative programming, and business plan competitions. 

    The agreement between ASA and NFTE consists of an immediate $5 million unrestricted grant and annual matching grants of up to $2 million for the next 10 years. ASA’s support will help NFTE move from a school-by-school approach to a more systemwide strategy to work with states and school districts to more effectively and efficiently expand the number of schools, teachers, and students that the organization works with each school year. NFTE currently serves 50,000+ students annually across 30 U.S. states. ASA’s support will allow NFTE to expand its position as one of the nation’s largest entrepreneurship education nonprofits.

    “Research shows that access to high-quality entrepreneurship education leads to better career and economic outcomes. ASA is honored to enter into a new strategic alliance with NFTE, as part of our mission to engage many more young people with their future planning through impactful entrepreneurial experiences,” said ASA CEO and President Jean Eddy. “As a leader in providing unique and engaging digital-first career readiness experiences to more than 15 million kids annually, this union underscores our commitment and intentional focus on the learners in historically underrepresented communities.

    Curriculum development and programming includes NFTE’s new Exploring Careers course, which provides teens with exposure to a broad exploration of career opportunities. The alliance will also further enable NFTE’s pitch competition programs, including its high-profile business plan competition series known as the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge.

    In addition, the alliance will fund professional development for teachers; research that articulates the benefits of career readiness programming through entrepreneurship education; and support statewide policies that promote students’ acquisition of credentials and certifications in entrepreneurship. 

    “This partnership enshrines NFTE’s longstanding relationship with ASA, a fellow supporter of the power of entrepreneurship education, and aligns our two organizations’ missions to help young people discover who they are and what they love,” said NFTE CEO Dr. J.D. LaRock. “I look forward to continuing our mutual efforts to foster creativity, success, and self-actualization among our nation’s youth.”

    NFTE established the idea of the entrepreneurial mindset as a set of skills and attitudes that can be learned, practiced, and refined through experience. It is the foundation of the nonprofit’s nearly four decades of work with youth from under-resourced communities. NFTE’s research-based, award-winning entrepreneurial programs are designed to activate and cultivate the entrepreneurial mindset, which not only enhances college and career readiness but also uniquely prepares learners for the future of work. Developing the entrepreneurial mindset lays a foundation for success throughout life, and effective entrepreneurship education can reduce educational and workplace inequities. 

    As part of the strategic alliance, Jean Eddy will be joining the NFTE’s Board of Directors, and Dr. LaRock will be appointed to ASA’s Board of Directors.

    About American Student Assistance® (ASA) 

    American Student Assistance® (ASA) is a national nonprofit changing the way kids learn about careers and navigate a path to postsecondary education and career success. ASA believes all students should have equitable access to career readiness learning, starting in middle school, so they will be equipped to make informed, confident decisions about their futures. ASA fulfills its mission by providing free digital-first experiences, including Futurescape® and Next Voice™, and EvolveMe™, directly to millions of students, and through impact investing and philanthropic support for educators, intermediaries, and others. To learn more about ASA, visit  www.asa.org/about – asa .

    About The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)

    Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) ignites the entrepreneurial mindset with unique learning experiences that empower students to own their futures. A global nonprofit founded in 1987, NFTE provides high-quality entrepreneurship education to middle school, high school, and postsecondary students in 30 U.S. states and 31 countries. NFTE brings the power of entrepreneurship to students regardless of family income, community resources, special needs, gender identity, race, or ethnicity. NFTE has educated more than 1.25 million students, delivering programs in school, out of school, in person, online, and through hybrid models. Visit  nfte.com  to learn more.  

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  • This Python Coding Bundle is Just $36 Through November 27 Only | Entrepreneur

    This Python Coding Bundle is Just $36 Through November 27 Only | Entrepreneur

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    Python is one of the leading programming languages in the world, which means having a strong handle on it could make you or someone you know a valuable asset to virtually any modern-day business. If you’re on the hunt for the type of gift that can keep on giving for yourself or an aspiring programmer in your life, then this deal is worth paying attention to. During a limited-time price drop, you can get The 2023 Premium Python Programming Mega Certification Bundle on sale for just $35.97 (reg. $196).

    Featuring 14 courses and over 110 hours of content on a wide range of Python-related topics, this comprehensive bundle comes with the guidance and tutelage of seasoned instructors. For example, Joseph Delgadillo is a best-selling instructor with an average 4.3/5 star instructor rating, and he works with SkillSuccess, which has been featured on CNN, Entrepreneur, and Mashable.

    Delgadillo’s course Learn To Code with Python 3 covers a wide range of specific Python programming basics. It goes over how to build complete projects like web scraping tools and projects. It also shows you how to work with data visualizations and statistics and how to solve everyday, real-life problems using computer programs. This course is rated 5/5 stars on average by students.

    Some course subjects in the bundle include a Python Bootcamp in a Day, Python Programming: Machine Learning, Deep Learning, NumPy Python Programming, and more. This comprehensive and well-reviewed bundle would make an excellent early holiday gift for yourself or someone in your life.

    Through November 27th at 11:59 p.m. PT, get The 2023 Premium Python Programming Mega Certification Bundle on sale for just $35.97 (reg. $196).

    Prices subject to change.

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  • Trump Proposes ‘Press the Meat’ Show – Bill Tope, Humor Times

    Trump Proposes ‘Press the Meat’ Show – Bill Tope, Humor Times

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    “Press the Meat” is set to debut in two weeks, and reportedly will feature the ex-president’s wide-ranging sex exploits.

    Former President Donald J. Trump has gone public with a proposal for a programming alternative to NBC’s storied political affairs program, Meet the Press, which has been a Sunday morning mainstay for more than 75 years. Trump will call his new show “Press the Meat,” and it will feature news reports, testimonials and current events concerning the ex-president’s wide-ranging sex life.

    Press the MeatSaid PTM executive produce Tucker Carlson, the show will debut on Dec. 5 which, he said, “is Long Dong Silver’s birthday.” The famed porn star is the person after whom “the Donald has modeled his whole career.” According to Carlson. Trump became associated with Silver during the ex-president’s sexual affair with Stormy Daniels, which never happened.

    Press the Meat will appear on Trump’s platform Truth Social and will be divided into three segments: 1) A Synopsis of all things sexual and manly that Trump has been up to over the previous week; Celebrity Spotlight: a summary of all the “hot, voluptuous, beautiful people that the president has nailed;” and 3) a Studied Comparison of Trump’s sexual organs with the clearly lesser genitalia of his political opponents. (Nikki Haley will be contrasted with Melania).

    Unlike Meet the Press, which is available to viewers at no cost, Press the Meat will require viewers to donate a $100 “love offering” to the coffers of the Trump PAC, which goes to pay for Trump’s attorney fees and political efforts in the 2024 election cycle. Trump tells viewers not to feel bad about the subscription fee because,“The joke is really on the lawyers,” remarked Trump, “because in the end they won’t get paid anyway.”

    Press the Meat will run ads for Trump Enterprises, encompassing such products as Trump Steaks, Trump Steak Knives, Shzitka (Trump Vodka), as well as mentorships at the revamped Trump College for White People (TCWP), an institute of higher learning which opened its doors this month.

    Sign up for Press the Meat today, urges Carlson, because the first hundred thousand subscribers will receive life-size cutouts of the “true size of Trump’s hands.” Non-subscribers will receive two cutouts.

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  • Entrepreneur | This Versatile Training Bundle Is Just $24.99 for Presidents’ Day

    Entrepreneur | This Versatile Training Bundle Is Just $24.99 for Presidents’ Day

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    Presidents’ Day might mean a long weekend, depending on your job or school, and it also means savings. If you’re one of many Americans looking for work this year, or if you’re looking to improve your current skill set, it’s worth looking into modern trends and key players like Microsoft. That being said, there is a lot of inherent value in a cumulative e-learning experience like The Complete Excel, VBA, and Data Science Certification Training Bundle.

    On sale for well below its MSRP, this collection of educational courses will be price-dropped even further and made available for just $24.99 from February 17 through the 20 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. You can get 13 courses and over 52 hours of content on Excel, web automation, Python, and more for this affordable rate.

    Among the most well-reviewed courses available in this bundle, Introduction to Excel features six hours of content on the basic functions of Excel and how this iconic program is used for bigger tools. This and other courses are taught by Mammoth Interactive, which produces games and e-learning experiences under the direction of John Bura—a top-rated instructor. Mammoth has an average 4.2/5-star instructor rating.

    Another great course in this bundle is Data Science with Stocks, Excel, and Machine Learning. Combining several subjects into one, this in-depth learning experience will teach you the basics of machine learning concepts, introductory Python content, and how to project and track stocks in Excel.

    This bundle is rated an average of 4.5/5 stars by verified purchasers. While its 13 courses are cumulatively valued at $2,600, the bundle is on sale during this Presidents’ Day event. From February 17th – 20th, The Complete Excel, VBA, and Data Science Certification Training Bundle is just $24.99.

    Prices subject to change.

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  • What Is SQL and How Does It Work?

    What Is SQL and How Does It Work?

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    Out of all the programming languages you need to learn in the IT industry, SQL is one of the most important. SQL is so integral to modern big data access and organization processes that it’s never a bad idea to grasp the basics of this language, even if you don’t work in the IT industry.

    This article will break down what SQL is, how it works and when this language is used for everyday operations.

    What is SQL?

    SQL stands for “structured query language.” This core programming language is primarily used to manipulate or communicate with information databases.

    For example, when a computer requests information from a local library, SQL facilitates information transfer between that terminal and the library’s database.

    However, SQL is also frequently used by businesses. SQL enables enterprises to access and organize the mountains of data they collect from their customers, which is increasingly common and important today.

    Related: Learn How to Manage Data Like a Pro with This SQL Course

    SQL was created in the 1970s by IBM laboratories. Scientists at IBM created SQL to take advantage of a new database software system called System R. SQL was needed to manage all the data stored in System R.

    SQL was initially called Sequel, which is where the language got its acronym and spoken name. SQL was then updated in 1979 by Relational Software, a company that later became Oracle. Oracle changed SQL into Oracle V2, a modified version of SQL.

    Today, SQL is still widely used around the world for a variety of purposes.

    To be more specific, SQL allows users to:

    • Execute precise queries against a database or collection of data as a “relational database.”
    • Retrieve or update records and data in a database.
    • Insert new records into a database.
    • Delete old records in the database.
    • Make new databases or create new tables in the same database for further optimization and organization.
    • Make stored procedures and views for a database.
    • Set user permissions for procedures, views, tables and database data sets.

    In other words, SQL allows users to accurately access and manipulate their data sets in an efficient, streamlined way.

    SQL servers and relational database management systems or RDMS, are available from organizations like Microsoft in their Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL). It’s a standard of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

    What is SQL used for?

    At its core, SQL is used to access and manipulate database information.

    For example, businesses may use SQL to modify, add to, remove or otherwise organize data stored in private databases.

    In addition, businesses can use SQL programs to create and alter data tables: an essential part of data analysis and understanding.

    Note that a “database” is any tool used to collect and organize dense information in these circumstances. Databases, for example, can store customer information, transaction information and much more.

    SQL is often needed for other programs or programming languages to interface with databases stored on remote or on-site servers.

    Python, Javascript or some other standard language can interact with an SQL database, which uses its own data manipulation language (DML)/data definition language (DDL). An SQL protocol can access the data before retrieving it and translating it into an output or format that Python can understand/render to an end user.

    Overall, SQL is essential for the following:

    • Accessing or removing data.
    • Editing data in databases.
    • Assisting with data analytics.
    • Connecting different programs or programming languages with databases.

    Given its versatility and importance, SQL is one of the best programming languages to learn. If you want to join the IT industry at any point, becoming fluent in SQL standards will bolster your resume and career prospects.

    Related: Transform Data Into Game-Changing Insights with This SQL Training

    Major elements of SQL

    The SQL language has several vital elements that dictate its language syntax and format. All language commands in database management systems or databases are executed through specialized SQL command line interfaces or CLIs.

    The significant elements of SQL include:

    • Clauses — which are components of SQL statements or queries.
    • Expressions — which make scalar values or tables and which usually consist of rows and columns of data.
    • Predicates — which specify conditions and are used to limit statement effects or queries.
    • Queries — which are actions to retrieve data based on specific criteria.
    • Statements — which are used to control transactions, perform diagnostics, make connections, and adjust program flow or sessions.

    Very broadly, when a database system uses SQL, SQL statements send queries from a client program or server where data is stored. The server then processes SQL statements and gives replies to the client program or terminal.

    In this way, SQL lets users execute many data manipulation operations quickly and efficiently using direct data inputs.

    Common SQL commands

    To better understand SQL and how it works, it helps to understand some of the most common SQL commands.

    Here are just a few examples:

    • Create database — a command used to create a database.
    • Create table — which is used to create tables.
    • Select — which is used either find or extract data from a database.
    • Update — which allows users to edit or make adjustments to data.
    • Delete — which enables users to delete some data.
    • Drop — which is used to remove databases or tables.
    • Insert into — which lets users insert fresh data into a database.

    SQL is such a comprehensive and versatile language that it also includes many more complex commands. As a data control language, data analysts spend a lot of time learning the ins and outs of its database tables, database objects, relational models and data types.

    How does SQL work?

    While there are different versions or frameworks for SQL, the most common framework used is MySQL. MySQL is an open-source version of this programming language that facilitates the primary role of SQL, enabling organizations to manage their backend data and web applications quickly.

    For instance, companies like Instagram, Facebook and more use SQL for data processing and backend data storage.

    So, how does this all work? When a user or programmer writes an SQL query, it is written and run (or “parsed” according to the official terminology) and a query optimizer then processes it. Once the SQL query reaches the SQL server, it goes through three distinct phases: parsing, binding and optimization.

    Put very simply:

    • Parsing is an SQL process that checks syntax for the query.
    • Binding is an SQL process that checks the query’s semantics or details.
    • Optimization is an SQL process that generates the query execution plan or that carries out the requested command.

    If you want to know more about this, you can take some SQL courses for your personal knowledge or your company.

    Related: How to Become Master of Your Data with Microsoft SQL For Only $40

    Many of these courses are reasonably affordable, so it doesn’t take much to learn SQL, even for beginners, to data science or SQL syntax.

    The SQL compiling process explained

    Here’s a breakdown of the SQL compiling process in a little more detail.

    First, parsing takes place. This tokenizes the SQL statement into different words, checking them for verbiage, clauses and specific symbols. Next, the SQL server will check semantics. This means it validates the statement to ensure it is legitimate or understandable.

    In other words, the server ensures that the SQL query makes sense. Many servers also provide that the data the user requests exists and the user has the appropriate privileges to execute a specific query.

    Then comes binding. The SQL server makes a query plan for the received statement during this stage. This forms a binary representation of any steps needed to carry out the query or statement in byte code.

    This renders the compilation as a command-line shell, a program that can read SQL statements and send them to a database server for optimization and execution.

    At this stage, the SQL server optimizes the query plan and chooses the ideal algorithms for searching or storing data. Depending on the server or program, it may use a feature called query optimization or a “relational engine.”

    Last, the server executes the SQL statement by running the query plan depending on what exactly needs to be done.

    Related: Learn How to Manage Data Like a Pro with This SQL Course

    Summary

    SQL is one of the most crucial programming languages, and businesses use it daily.

    Now you know how SQL works, why it’s essential and how to leverage it for your advantage: a critical skill whether you need to build a business website or want to get into the IT sector.

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