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!
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