Expert programmer seeking short-term contracts or a long-term position developing advanced, elegant software.

Fortes include C, Java, Scheme, interpreters, parsers, virtual machines, and API design. Skilled with Unix, Python, assorted assembly languages, Standard ML, Common Lisp, Forth, and more.

Experience

• Codesigned and implemented a high-level Java API for SNMP MIBs, part of the Oplet Runtime Environment for active networking.
• Adapted a MIB compiler to generate the implementation's outermost layer directly from standard MIBs.
• Wrote a new SNMP stack. This and the above are high-quality code to be released as open source.

• Primarily responsible for the Java debugger. Helped develop an efficient Java interpreter in 100% pure Java and coauthored a provisional patent application on the techniques used. Created a library for Java bytecode generation.
• Created an SNMP MIB parser.

• Hired to test the Remote Agent Executive controlling the Deep Space 1 spaceprobe; after a change of scope a month later I moved on to Quirk, an experimental descendant of the Scheme programming language for controlling spacecraft. I created a test suite, found and fixed bugs in both the virtual-machine interpreter and the compiler and runtime library, critiqued and improved the language design, implemented new primitives and library functions, added function- and bytecode-level profiling, documented undocumented code, explored the issues for adding thread support, and wrote semiautomatic translators to and from Scheme.

• Several contract jobs, including training, support, and creating the core engine of their ExpertPATH product for analyzing site neighborhoods according to drive times over street networks.

• Designed and implemented a set of little languages that collectively form a flat-file database system. Commercial databases up until then were considered by the company to be too slow for their demanding processes, leading to a large set of ad-hoc programs operating on fixed formats and coordinated by batch files. I took every opportunity I could find to simplify and unify through simple data description and manipulation languages, and helped design a vaguely RATFOR-style preprocessor for the batch files (since third-party command languages were not allowed). I introduced awk and other free tools and served as the local guru in their use. All together, these led to improved productivity and fewer errors in production.
• Developed major parts of a Windows application for interactively exploring clients' customer and market data. This involved interface design from a general indication of what was wanted, with implementation using Visual Basic, C DLLs, database access, and extensions to MapInfo using MapBasic. Also I wrote code-generating scripts to help manage the volatility from having different, frequently-updated versions for many clients.
• Provided technical leadership and support for other programmers
.
• Worked on lots of smaller projects and maintained older code.

• Found bugs and improved documentation in a new release of a Forth software development system. Rewrote the screen editor.

Articles and talks

• ``Idel: lightweight mobile code for peer-to-peer CPU sharing.'' Presentation at CodeCon 2002.
• ``A hacker's introduction to partial evaluation'', Yadda Lambda, September 2002.

Education

Miscellany

U.S. citizen. References available on request.