Senior Technical Writer
I have a BSc in Computer Science from Edinburgh University, and a PhD from Reading University, both in the UK. Earlier in my career, I wrote a number of computer games: Scrabble (assembler), Borodino, Waterloo, Austerlitz, Dreadnoughts wargames in C, then Battalia in C++ and Trireme Commander (a simulation) in C#. I find programming fun, especially algorithms, AI, simulation, graphics, audio, and games logic. More recently I have documented SDKs and written developer tutorials, including for Microsoft Flight Simulator, WorldWide Telescope (an astronomy program), and Azure IoT, Azure Search, and Azure Maps. Learning is fun too, which of course it has to be with so much to learn!
First some personal news. To keep my coding skills sharp(ish), I updated my simulation of Greek and Persian triremes (rowed war-galleys with big bronze rams) with better graphics (splashy bows, greying sea and skies in strong wind, fire pots to illuminate courses) and some…
Read more →In a past life I worked in the computer journalism business, and learnt over time what attracts people to read a page. Lot’s of things are important, the font used, the spacing between letters and lines and paragraphs, even the width of a column of text is super-important for…
Read more →AI generated code has some fun side effects. Whilst generating a lot of code and testing it using Microsoft Visual Studio I had the odd experience of giving the AI model a line of buggy code, and it forthrightly states to replace this faulty line with this new line.
Read more →My focus this quarter has been on drawing in C++ developers who are new to the Boost libraries. When I did my time at Microsoft, writing API documentation, THE most common question from the developer community was for sample code - more samples - better samples - samples with…
Read more →The C++ Alliance supports both the great Boost Libraries and a current proposal for a memory/type/thread-safe version of C++ called Safe C++. They are not connected in any way other than the Alliance’s support.
Read more →Authored and published a new topic on Debug Visualizers in the Contributor Guide. Debug Visualizers offer a powerful way to simplify the debugging process by allowing developers to see complex data structures in a more understandable format.
Read more →Post-Release Engagement section added to the Contributors FAQ, providing seven questions and answers that new library developers have on their likely workload following the release.
Read more →Added a Contributors FAQ to the Contributor Guide, then updated it with a series of questions and answers on Security - based on what I thought many new developers might ask about Security.
Read more →Wrote a section on the Super-project, based on some legacy Wiki pages that needed considerable updating, and the boostdep tool steps as this covered installing the necessary components.
Read more →Wrote a Version Control topic, including sections on the super-project, breaking changes, and filing issues, for the Contributor Guide Wrote a Continuous Integration (CI) topic, with sections on the range of tools available, and including best practices and links to good…
Read more →Empowering C++ by funding libraries, building community, and advancing the language.
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