About y42 software



Hi, I'm Brian.

I'm really enjoying programing on a Mac (and sure don't mind other platforms). Even though Objective-C and the Cocoa framework by Apple Computer Inc. make this task easy I'd like to look under the hood and explore the capabilities of what Cocoa can do.

Admiring the construction of this framework, my path right now leads me to OO principles, patterns and anti-patterns and the wealth of knowledge shared by others. With this site I'd like to give some knowledge back to the community.

Since 1994 I'm on the Mac platform. As a learned photographer I started with electronic image manipulation and DTP.
Later I dug into Webdesign at a time where the web was not commercialized and HTML 4 was just released with the wonders of CSS, which was a great idea. I also did some basic scripting with JavaScript - purely out of interest. Modem speed was usually 28kbs at that time and internet providers charged 50DM (that's 25€ or $30) a month just for dial in (add the same for the telephone company).

When Apple released the first version of Mac OS X (and the Cocoa framework) I started programming and really got engrossed in it. I picked up my studies (better late than never) earning a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science (B.C.S.) at the University of Applied Sciences in Reutlingen, Germany.
During my studies I had contact to (beta versions of) the Semantic Web (Protegé, OWL/RDF, Jena-Framework used on Tomcat), worked with Oracle Databases and had seminars on SAP and ABAP.
Since then I did GUI-design and programming, plus what is usually called UNIX programming, sent some chars to and received some chars from serial devices and just began learning Java.

At school we were specifically trained in a team environment and my experience is that Agile Development methods can help in the process of creating software. If you haven't read it yet, please feel free to read my short article about Agile ideas.

If you like to get to know me better ("in private") be sure to visit my private homepage and find out how to make a Cappuccino there.
If you do wonder: "Why did he pick that name? Why y42?" Might have something to do with Douglas Adams... ;-)

Skills

Languages:
  • Objective-C
  • Java
  • C
  • C++
  • a bit of C#
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • Ruby on Rails
  • PHP
  • SQL
  • AppleScript
  • Lotus Notes/Domino Designer
  • Panther
Databases Management/Design:
  • SQLServer
  • IBM Informix
  • Oracle
  • MySQL
  • Board (OLAP)
  • Infor OLAP/Application Studio
  • Cubeware Importer
  • PostgreSQL
  • Adabas D
  • Filemaker
  • Corel Paradox
  • MS Access
Products:
  • OSes:
    • Mac OS X
    • Mac OS 7-9
    • Suse OpenLinux 7-12/ SLES 9-12/Ubuntu 14-18
    • Windows XP / 7 / 10
  • IDEs and Dev-Tools
    • XCode
    • Eclipse
    • NetBeans
    • SublimeText
    • RapidWeaver / CSSEdit
    • Subversion
    • Lotus Designer
    • TextMate
    • TextWrangler
    • vim
  • Graphic
    • Capture One Pro
    • Photoshop
    • Affinity Photo/Designer
    • Canvas / Illustrator / Sketch
    • Aperture / Lightzone / Lightroom
  • Office
    • MS Office Suite
    • OpenOffice/LibreOffice
    • IBM Notes
    • iWork Suite (Apple Pages, Numbers...)