March 2015 Summaries

Semaphore is looking to expand its collection of software development tutorials by inviting developers to write articles focusing on test-driven development, continuous delivery, and DevOps automation. Writers can earn up to $200 per tutorial, with no limit on the number they can submit, and will receive payment within a week of completing an article. The initiative aims to document both fundamental and advanced industry practices, ensuring that the content is clear, accurate, and high quality. Semaphore has already bootstrapped its community with tutorials from its own engineers, but to achieve its goal of a comprehensive resource, it is seeking contributions from the wider developer community. Interested individuals are encouraged to submit a sample article and topics they wish to explore, with guidelines available to ensure submissions align with Semaphore's standards. The platform hopes to foster a community of writers dedicated to educating developers and enhancing their skills in leading software development practices.

Semaphore now supports the continuous integration and deployment of Scala applications, leveraging Scala's multi-paradigm approach that combines functional and object-oriented programming for modularity and flexibility. Scala, which stands for "Scalable Language," is designed for robust, future-proof server-side software, running on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and allowing seamless integration with Java libraries. It compiles to Java bytecode, enabling compile-time bug detection, while offering enhancements over Java such as a flexible syntax and a unified type system. To set up continuous integration for a Scala project, users can add their project via Semaphore's dashboard, which supports GitHub and Bitbucket, and benefits from the sbt build tool's dependency caching feature. Testing frameworks like specs2 and ScalaTest, combined with Semaphore’s capabilities, ensure code readiness and reliability, inviting developers to explore the potential of building with Scala and Semaphore.

Semaphore has launched the Semaphore community, a new initiative aimed at creating a comprehensive knowledge base focused on test-driven development, continuous delivery, and DevOps automation. Rendered Text, the company behind Semaphore, is driven by a commitment to best practices and software quality, which inspired the creation of their continuous integration product. The community aims to democratize access to these practices through tutorials, starting with over 20 original articles on various topics, such as RSpec, Selenium testing, and Chef cookbook integration. Published under a Creative Commons license, the platform encourages user engagement through comments, subscriptions to specific topics, and contributions of original tutorials. The community also features interviews with successful software teams and links to open-source projects. As Semaphore plans to publicly host user-generated content, it has updated its Terms of Service to address user conduct and content guidelines.

An upcoming platform update set for March 24th, 2015, includes several software updates and enhancements across various technologies. Git is updated to version 2.3.3, io.js receives version 1.5.1, and Java 8 is enhanced with Oracle JDK 8u40. MongoDB is upgraded to version 2.6.8, and PHP sees updates in versions 5.6.6, 5.5.22, and 5.4.38. Ruby 2.2.1 is newly added to the platform, addressing a memory leak issue on Symbol GC, with further details available in the Ruby changelog. Users can try out the new features immediately by selecting Ubuntu 14.04 LTS v1503 in the Project Settings, which helps identify and resolve potential issues before the final release. The update also includes Node.js at version 0.10.37 and Scala at version 2.11.6, with a comprehensive list of changes accessible via the platform changelog.