olifante

I’m an IT generalist with an exact mind, a love of cutting-edge tools and a preference for languages that favor programmer happiness and productivity.

I have a post-graduation in Computer Science but I originally got a licentiate in Physics (equivalent to a BSc+MSc). Apart from a short stint in academia, I've worked in the IT industry since 1998.

My strongest language since 2001 has been Python. Since 2008, I've focused on doing server-side webdev with Django, with steadily increasing doses of JavaScript to spruce up the front-end. In 2011 I’m concentrating on improving my iOS development skills and becoming a more sophisticated front-end developer. I excel at picking up new languages and technologies and seeing how they fit together.

Languages matter. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis might or might not apply to natural languages, but it definitely applies to programming languages. Programming languages are tools for thinking, and I prefer the ones that let you concentrate on thinking interesting thoughts without sacrificing practicality. Right now that means Python, Coffeekup, Ruby, Clojure, Scala and Go.

Tools matter. My fingers love Vim, Emacs is powerful, TextMate is nicer, PyCharm is great and Xcode 4 is the best IDE I’ve ever used. I use Git constantly and feel that it did more for my productivity than any other tool I've adopted in the last few years. I live and breathe Unix and love the command-line. I like Macs, iOS and Android.

I've composed a few music pieces. If you're curious, you can listen to them here:
http://soundcloud.com/olifante