David Williams

IBM Software Group, Rational

What do you do?
I work as a developer for IBM and these days am lucky enough to be nearly full time on Eclipse -- occasionally helping IBM products "port" or "test" something but between leading the yearly release train, and running the Platform's builds, pretty much have my hands full -- and that's not counting being Orbit Lead, running those builds, being on the Tools PMC, several Councils, and mentoring others. During my decades at IBM, I have had several distinct careers, but all of them have been focused on making life easier for developers and their customers.

How long have you been using Eclipse?
I have been using Eclipse even before it was Eclipse, but began contributing to Eclipse when WTP (Web Tools Platform) became a project in 2004. My specialty, then, was the XML Editor (and other "Structured Source Editors") which is where I learned to appreciate regular expressions and parsing in general. I quickly got involved in many architectural and project management issues, eventually being becoming WTP PMC Lead for several years, as well as being on the "ground floor" of the Architecture and Planning Councils. At one of those early meetings, I was brash enough to volunteer to lead a "coordinated release train" effort, later named "Callisto" and released in 2006 -- and I have been involved with that yearly effort ever since -- eventually being appointed chair of the Planning Council and eventually leading to receiving the first Eclipse Foundation's Lifetime Contribution Award in 2011. For historical fun, I've included a photo of my very first Eclipse award, given at a 2006 EclipseCon reception, specifically for my work on Callisto -- a cake, shaped like a computer. Someone, somehow, learned that I will do anything for cake! In the beginning, it was clear that we (the Councils) wanted a "simultaneous" release (since up until then, there was always pure chaos about what versions of components worked together) and I felt strongly the only way to achieve that was to have a concrete deliverable ... a "common repository" as it is often mis-named. The rest is history, culminating in our 9th Simultaneous Release this year: Luna. A great many people have made these yearly releases possible, of course (including leadership, tool making, IT and Legal support from the Eclipse Foundation, as well as the outright contributions from the many Eclipse projects). One thing I love about my role at Eclipse is getting to work with a wide variety of projects and wide variety of committers: some "newcomers" to Eclipse which I like to mentor, and some expert "old timers" who I have learned so much from it is hard to express its value and my appreciation to them.

Name three plugins you use and recommend:
I use pretty basic stuff, most of the time: JDT and PDE naturally, not to mention the XML, HTML and PHP editors. The b3 Aggregator Editor is pretty much a "required" part of the Simultaneous Release, but is actually more powerful and useful than most people learn about in that context, and comes in handy in a variety of situations to test and produce many types of repositories. But if I could give only one recommendation to Eclipse projects, it would be to try out the WTP Project's HTML (and similar) Editor's validation to produce better mark up (and get better formatting, and content assist as bonuses).

What's your favorite thing to do when you're not working?
When I am not working ... hmmm, when is that exactly? Oh, yes, that must be when I'm playing with my grandchildren -- especially teaching them how to use (play) on the computer or "tabet" as the youngest one says. But otherwise, my "hobbies" all involve things suspiciously like work ... such as recompiling the latest Linux kernel, just to see what happens, reading detailed investigations of the latest cyber security threats, or even more fun, with no practical value, reading New Scientist such as to try and understand the tiniest bit about quantum computers, or reading speculation in Communications of the ACM such as what might happen to society if we could figure out how to solve NP-complete algorithms quickly. Now that you know what my idea of fun is, maybe you will better understand why I am often working at 3 AM!