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00 <?php
01 include_once ('webcore/init.php');
02
03 $Page->title->subject = "Marco Von Ballmoos - Curriculum Vitae";
04 $Page->template_options->title = "C.V.";
05
06 $Page->location->add_root_link ();
07 $Page->location->append ("Marco", "../");
08 $Page->location->append ("Curriculum Vitae", './');
09 $Page->location->append ("October 2002");
10
11 $dhtml = $Page->dhtml_allowed();
12 $closed = $dhtml && ! read_var ('open');
13
14 $Page->start_display ();
15 ?>
16 <div class="main-box">
17 <div class="text-flow">
18 <h1>Marco Von Ballmoos</h1>
19 <p>120-12 85th Avenue, Apt. 2E<br>
20 Kew Gardens, NY 11415<br>
21 718.441.6949 (Home)<br>
22 212.529.3913 x150 (Office)<br>
23 <a
24 href="mailto:marco@earthli.com">marco@earthli.com</a>
25 </p>
26 <h2>Skills</h2>
27 <dl>
28 <dt class="field">Experience/Expertise Matrix</dt>
29 <dd>
30 <p>This matrix shows a detailed list of programming languages, libraries and
31 APIs that I have used.</p>
32 <p class="notes">A <span class="reference">level</span> of 1-3 signifies beginner,
33 4-7 intermediate and 8-10 expert. <span class="reference">Experience</span>
34 is measured in years.</p>
35 <table class="basic columns left-labels numeric-data">
36 <tr>
37 <th>Programming</th>
38 <th>Level</th>
39 <th>Experience</th>
40 </tr>
41 <tr>
42 <td>OO Design</td>
43 <td>9</td>
44 <td>8</td>
45 </tr>
46 <tr>
47 <td>C++</td>
48 <td>9</td>
49 <td>6</td>
50 </tr>
51 <tr>
52 <td>MFC</td>
53 <td>8</td>
54 <td>6</td>
55 </tr>
56 <tr>
57 <td>STL</td>
58 <td>7</td>
59 <td>3</td>
60 </tr>
61 <tr>
62 <td>Object Pascal</td>
63 <td>7</td>
64 <td>4</td>
65 </tr>
66 <tr>
67 <td>VCL</td>
68 <td>6</td>
69 <td>3</td>
70 </tr>
71 <tr>
72 <td>Win32</td>
73 <td>9</td>
74 <td>7</td>
75 </tr>
76 <tr>
77 <td><span title="Metrowerks MacOS Framework">PowerPlant</span></td>
78 <td>6</td>
79 <td> 2</td>
80 </tr>
81 <tr>
82 <td>MacOS Toolbox</td>
83 <td>7</td>
84 <td>2</td>
85 </tr>
86 <tr>
87 <td>Eiffel</td>
88 <td>6</td>
89 <td>5</td>
90 </tr>
91 <tr>
92 <th>Database</th>
93 <th>Level</th>
94 <th>Experience</th>
95 </tr>
96 <tr>
97 <td>MySQL/SQL</td>
98 <td>7</td>
99 <td>2.5</td>
100 </tr>
101 <tr>
102 <td>SQL Server/T-SQL</td>
103 <td>7</td>
104 <td>1.5</td>
105 </tr>
106 <tr>
107 <th>Web</th>
108 <th>Level</th>
109 <th>Experience</th>
110 </tr>
111 <tr>
112 <td>PHP</td>
113 <td>9</td>
114 <td>2.5</td>
115 </tr>
116 <tr>
117 <td>ASP</td>
118 <td>8</td>
119 <td>1.5</td>
120 </tr>
121 <tr>
122 <td>JavaScript</td>
123 <td>8</td>
124 <td>6.5</td>
125 </tr>
126 <tr>
127 <td>CSS</td>
128 <td>9</td>
129 <td>5</td>
130 </tr>
131 <tr>
132 <td>HTML</td>
133 <td>10</td>
134 <td>6.5</td>
135 </tr>
136 <tr>
137 <td>DHTML</td>
138 <td>7</td>
139 <td>2</td>
140 </tr>
141 <tr>
142 <td>Graphic Design</td>
143 <td>6</td>
144 <td>8</td>
145 </tr>
146 <tr>
147 <td>Apache/MySQL Admin</td>
148 <td>6</td>
149 <td>2.5</td>
150 </tr>
151 </table>
152 </dd>
153 </dl>
154 <dl>
155 <dt class="field">Systems</dt>
156 <dd>Windows 3.x - 2000; MacOS 8.x - OS X</dd>
157 <dt class="field">Tools</dt>
158 <dd>Metrowerks CodeWarrior for C++ 4.0 - 7.0; Borland Delphi 1.0 - 6.0; ISE
159 Eiffel 4.5 - 5.1; Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0 - 6.0; Visual Parse++ 2.1 - 4.0;
160 DreamWeaver 2.0 - 4.01; Photoshop 4.0 - 6.01; Perforce 99.1 - 2001.1<br>
161 </dd>
162 </dl>
163 <h2>Work Experience</h2>
164 <h3>
165 Opus GmbH, Wetzikon, CH <span class="detail">Oct
166 2002 - Present</span></h3>
167 <p><span class="field">Atlas 2.0</span> <span class="detail">Aug
168 2002 - Present</span></p>
169 <p>Unknown:</p>
170 <ul>
171 <li>Developed...</li>
172 </ul>
173 <h3>
174 Logicat Inc., New York, NY <span class="detail">Aug
175 1994 - Aug 2002</span></h3>
176 <p><span class="field">Logicat Course Administrator</span> <span class="detail">May
177 2002 - Aug 2002</span></p>
178 <p>Designed and developed extensions to the CE Manager product to allow firms
179 to track a user's CLE from start to finish, especially in the role of a course
180 provider. Existing CE Manager features and new features were grouped into modules
181 to allow deployment of different sets of software for different firms. All pages
182 presented a dynamic view built from the features purchased by the firm combined
183 with the rights of the logged-in user. Commands, menu items and lists of information
184 available were all controlled by this feature/permission matrix. New functionality
185 included: </p>
186 <ul>
187 <li>Scheduled courses with a calendar view and rich view of scheduled courses
188 for each user
189 </li>
190 <li>Printable certificates for providers and individual users</li>
191 <li>Course evaluation and results aggregation</li>
192 <li>Authoring module for creating course evaluations</li>
193 </ul>
194 <p><span class="field">Logicat CE Manager</span> <span class="detail">Apr
195 2001 - Apr 2002</span></p>
196 <p>Designed and developed a web product that tracks continuing education credits
197 for attorneys in New York and California using IIS 5.0 and SQL Server 2000.
198 CE Manager includes:</p>
199 <ul>
200 <li>Validation for all data entry (users, courses, etc.).</li>
201 <li>A user search and reporting tool that lets administrators create customized
202 reports.
203 </li>
204 <li>Reminder and statement services for all licenses.</li>
205 </ul>
206 <p><span class="field">Logicat Online Testing</span> <span class="detail">Feb
207 2001 - Apr 2001</span></p>
208 <p>Worked with another developer to create a testing and test-authoring solution
209 for web sites using Microsoft IIS 5.0 and SQL Server 2000. This was used later
210 to build online learning solutions for clients.</p>
211 <p><span class="field">One-on-One with the SAT 2.0</span> <span class="detail">Jan
212 1999 - Feb 2001</span></p>
213 <p>Led a team of three developers to port the Logicat Test Engine to the MacOS
214 using Metrowerks CodeWarrior 5.0.</p>
215 <ul>
216 <li>Designed and developed a cross-platform library with a listener/broadcaster
217 event structure.
218 </li>
219 <li>Ported the ELF library to a custom cross-platform graphics library.</li>
220 <li>Implemented a cross-platform file-format with endian support.</li>
221 <li>Created new features such as arbitrarily nestable framesets and script/event
222 driven controls.
223 </li>
224 <li>Added support for dynamic/downloaded content.</li>
225 </ul>
226 <p><span class="field">Logicat Test Engine</span> <span class="detail">Nov
227 1997 - Dec 1998</span></p>
228 <p>Led a team of three developers to design and develop a system to create tests/tutorials
229 for multiple users for network or CD deployment on Windows using Visual C++
230 6.0.</p>
231 <ul>
232 <li>Test items and pages are created in an RTF-capable word processor with embedded
233 meta-tags.
234 </li>
235 <li>Item text can contain WYSIWYG text, paragraph and table formatting.</li>
236 <li>Items are compiled and assembled in a database using improved ELF technology
237 from the CPA software.
238 </li>
239 <li>Items can be scripted together with an event-based script language.</li>
240 <li>Tutorials can be enhanced using sounds, images and videos.</li>
241 <li>Tutorials can also gather and display user input and answers and can print
242 or e-mail results.
243 </li>
244 </ul>
245 <p><span class="field">Logicat CPA Review Software Update Release</span> <span class="detail">May
246 1997 - Nov 1997</span></p>
247 <p>Led a team of three developers to design and develop a study plan and calendar
248 to integrate the CPA software with a live course using Visual C++ 5.0. Used
249 Delphi 3.0 and OLE/COM to show PowerPoint presentations from the course.</p>
250 <p><span class="field">Performance Transfer Utility/Installer/Technical Manual</span> <span
251 class="detail">Feb
252 1997 - Apr 1997</span></p>
253 <p>Designed and developed a utility to manage a hardware copy protection library
254 using Delphi 2.0 and incorporated it into an installer using Wise 5.0. Created
255 a 100-page manual using HTML and CSS for the Technical Support department.</p>
256 <p><span class="field">Logicat CPA Review Software</span> <span class="detail">Aug
257 1996 - Jan 1997</span></p>
258 <p>Incorporated ELF into the <span class="reference">PassMaster</span> code base
259 as the main presentation and data storage engine. Created customized components
260 descended from the ELF object library.</p>
261 <p><span class="field">ELF</span> <span class="detail">Feb 1996
262 - Aug 1996</span></p>
263 <p>Designed and developed ELF, an object-oriented interactive document system
264 in Borland Delphi 2.0 and Microsoft Visual C++ 4.1. Created EML, an HTML-like
265 language, an RTF parser and a compound document format to convert existing data
266 from RTF to ELF.</p>
267 <p><span class="field">PassMaster CPA Review Web Site</span> <span class="detail">Dec
268 1995 - Jan 1996</span></p>
269 <p>Developed a web site for <span class="reference">PassMaster</span>, Logicat's
270 CPA test preparation product. Used JavaScript to present a 40-question demonstration
271 of the test preparation software.</p>
272 <p><span class="field">One-on-One with the SAT Counselor Utility</span> <span class="detail">Sep
273 1995 - Nov 1995</span></p>
274 <p>Created a management and reporting utility for One-on-One with the SAT for
275 multi-user networked school distributions using Borland Object Pascal 7.0.</p>
276 <p><span class="field">One-on-One with the SAT</span> <span class="detail">Aug
277 1994 - Sept 1995</span></p>
278 <p>Designed and developed a test preparation program for the SAT in conjunction
279 with The College Board using Borland Object Pascal 7.0.</p>
280 <hr>
281 <h3>
282 earthli.com, New York, NY <span class="detail">Oct
283 1999 - Dec 2001</span></h3>
284 <p><span class="field"><a href="http://www.earthli.com/projects/view_revision.php?id=24">earthli WebCore 2.0</a></span> <span
285 class="detail">Apr
286 2002 - Aug 2002</span></p>
287 <p>Upgraded the <span class="reference">WebCore</span> library to use a more well thought out, entirely class-based
288 hierarchy. A new GUI library was built, with generic support for forms, grids, buttons, menus and more. All the GUI
289 objects have customized descendents that handle the basic webcore objects and integrate nicely with the query library.
290 Pages now access all functionality through application and page objects rather than a mass of global variables. This
291 eases customization, extension and documenation.</p>
292 <p><span class="field"><a href="http://www.earthli.com/projects">earthli Projects</a></span> <span
293 class="detail">Mar
294 2002 - Jul 2002</span></p>
295 <p>Developed a project manager based on the <span class="reference">WebCore</span>.
296 Includes changes to record work completed and jobs to indicate work to do. Generates
297 formatted changelists and tracks revisions.</p>
298 <p><span class="field"><a href="http://www.earthli.com/news">earthli News</a></span> <span
299 class="detail">Jan
300 2002 - Feb 2002</span></p>
301 <p>Rewrote the <span class="reference">Forums</span> as a <span class="reference">WebCore</span>
302 application called <span class="reference">earthli News</span>. Once again,
303 a large amount of code reuse helped create a stable, full-featured news service
304 quickly and easily. Includes a subscription service.</p>
305 <p><span class="field"><a href="http://www.earthli.com/recipes/">earthli Recipes</a></span> <span
306 class="detail">Jan
307 2002 - Feb 2002</span></p>
308 <p>Created a second <span class="reference">WebCore</span> application to manage
309 recipes. Most of the functionality for this application was incorporated unchanged
310 from the <span class="reference">WebCore</span>, like the user/security model,
311 comments and full-text searching.</p>
312 <p><span class="field"><a href="http://www.earthli.com/albums/">earthli Photo
313 Albums 2.0</a></span> <span class="detail">Oct 2001 - Dec 2001</span></p>
314 <p>Rebuilt the <span class="reference">earthli Photo Albums</span> to include
315 many of the ideas developed in the <span class="reference">Forums</span>. Most
316 of the actual technology was reworked and incorporated into a general-purpose
317 back-end called the <span class="reference">earthli WebCore</span>. The <span class="reference">WebCore</span>
318 is a content management system written in PHP that can be extended to serve
319 many purposes. The Photo Albums are one such extension and they inherit many
320 of their new features directly from the <span class="reference">WebCore</span>,
321 such as enhanced security, nested albums, content management, anonymous users
322 and comments.</p>
323 <p><span class="field"><a href="http://www.earthli.com/settings.php">earthli
324 Themes</a></span> <span class="detail">Jun 2001 - Sep 2001</span></p>
325 <p>Redesigned the web site using only one set of styles, converting all existing
326 content to a uniform namespace. Implemented several themes on top of this
327 system that completely change the look (though not the layout) of the site.</p>
328 <p><span class="field">earthli Forums</span> <span class="detail">Oct
329 2000 - Dec 2000</span></p>
330 <p>Designed and developed a bulletin board system using PHP 4.x and MySQL 3.x.
331 It includes a flexible security system that describes rights for anonymous
332 users, registered users, groups and individuals. Other standard features include
333 full-text searching, nested replies and user profile pages. In 2001, the system
334 was updated to integrate with the <span class="reference">earthli Themes</span>.</p>
335 <p><span class="field">earthli Photo Albums 1.0</span> <span class="detail">Oct
336 1999 - Jul 2000</span></p>
337 <p>Designed and developed an online photo album using PHP 3.x and MySQL 3.x.
338 The system included multiple users, albums, pictures, journal entries and
339 a calendar.</p>
340 <h2>History</h2>
341 <h3>
342 Cross-Platform Content Engine </h3>
343 <p>I was first introduced to object-oriented programming in August of 1994 when
344 I started working at Logicat. I had been hired straight out of college and was
345 in charge of designing and programming an SAT test preparation program that
346 would later become known as <span class="reference">One-on-One with the SAT</span>.
347 I wrote the program in <span class="reference">Borland Object Pascal 7.0</span>
348 with the part-time aid of another programmer. The final product was only part
349 of the project, which also included a parser to convert RTF documents to a proprietary
350 format and several indexing tools for building the content database that the
351 program used. Soon after, I also wrote a utility for multi-user installations
352 that allowed an administrator to maintain the user database and print progress
353 reports. The utility was much easier to write because I was able to re-use much
354 of the code from <span class="reference">One-on-One</span> itself.</p>
355 <p>Early in 1996, with <span class="reference">One-on-One</span> shipped and most
356 support issues addressed, I wanted to focus on building software that wasn't
357 so project-specific. I began to write a new document renderer which would be
358 much more flexible and would concentrate only on displaying content and handling
359 events. I wrote the initial prototype in <span class="reference">Borland Delphi
360 1.0</span> and christened it <span class="reference">ELF</span>. The prototype
361 supported arbitrarily nested tables, images and multiple text styles.</p>
362 <p><span class="reference">ELF</span> would see use in the next incarnation of
363 Logicat's CPA test preparation software. First, I converted the prototype to
364 <span class="reference">Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0</span> to ease integration
365 into the existing code base. I also developed a very HTML-like document description
366 language called <span class="reference">EML</span>, complete with a parser and
367 an import filter for RTF documents. The RTF importer allowed content designers
368 to use all of the sophisticated editing capabilities of Microsoft Word to arrange
369 text. <span class="reference">EML</span> tags describe the structure, layout
370 and display properties of document data. Some tags break a document into separate
371 objects, whereas others describe the display properties of those objects. This
372 would form the core of the program.</p>
373 <p>The <span class="reference">CPA Software</span> also extended the <span class="reference">ELF</span>
374 library with objects that provided customized event handling. Much of the <span class="reference">CPA
375 Software's</span> program logic was still based on existing code from previous
376 versions of the <span class="reference">CPA Software</span>, but the content
377 creation, file format and data rendering/event handling were all based on <span class="reference">ELF</span>.
378 This project was also where I began using preconditions and postconditions,
379 which I simulated in C++ using assertions.</p>
380 <p>Towards the end of 1997, the <span class="reference">CPA Software</span> had
381 undergone more changes, but the <span class="reference">ELF</span> library was
382 still the only truly reusable portion. Seeing a need for a more flexible tool
383 that could address many different testing and training needs, Logicat set out
384 to build a <span class="reference">Test Engine</span>. It was to serve as a
385 development environment for building tutorials and testing materials and would
386 have to be more flexible to cover a broader range of needs.</p>
387 <p>The first step in making a more general <span class="reference">Test Engine</span>
388 was to move the content-specific program logic out of the executable. To this
389 end, I designed a simple scripting language and built a compiler and interpreter
390 for it. The language supports conditionals, loops and user-defined routines
391 and has an easily extensible library of built-in routines to access engine
392 functionality. Most of the user-defined routines serve as event handlers called
393 by other components of the <span class="reference">Test Engine</span>. There
394 were also some routines for manipulating the database of items created by
395 the content creation tools. Combined with support for sounds, images and movies,
396 a content designer could put together sophisticated presentations that varied
397 widely.</p>
398 <p>All of the code for the <span class="reference">Test Engine</span> makes
399 extensive use of preconditions and postconditions to ensure program correctness.
400 The two other developers on the project would build layers of more specific
401 objects atop the basic engine and the assertions answered many of their questions
402 before they were even asked. Since the engine was composed of so many components,
403 I implemented a subscriber/publisher system that connected them together using
404 abstract interfaces and kept them as separate as possible.
405 <!--Of course, in this
406 case, a system based on Eiffel's agent technology would have provided an even
407 more elegant solution, but a template-based version was acceptable.-->
408 </p>
409 <p>In January of 1999, Logicat began work on <span class="reference">One-on-One
410 with the SAT 2.0</span>. The <span class="reference">Test Engine</span> was
411 about to take its next step as they wanted this version to work on both Windows
412 and Macintosh. Starting in January of 1999, I spent several months reworking
413 the Windows version of the <span class="reference">Test Engine</span> to function
414 as a cross-platform version with Windows extensions. At this point, I was developing
415 in <span class="reference">Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0</span>. There were innumerable
416 dependencies on Windows or library-specific classes and functions that had to
417 be changed or eliminated. The MFC CString class was replaced with a version
418 based on the C++ Library string class. Direct calls to determine screen size
419 or amount of memory available were replaced with DISPLAY and SYSTEM classes,
420 respectively. At each juncture, I put as much functionality as possible into
421 cross-platform code and designed my classes so that the platform-specific version
422 was as thin as possible.</p>
423 <p>Once a rudimentary version of the <span class="reference">Test Engine</span>
424 was functioning in this way, we moved the code to the Macintosh using <span class="reference">Metrowerks
425 CodeWarrior 4.0/5.0</span>. With the <span class="reference">Test Engine</span>
426 using only platform-independent interfaces for system components, it was simple
427 to develop Macintosh versions of system objects and snap them into place. Very
428 quickly, the Macintosh version caught up to the Windows version in functionality.
429 The final product had most of the code in a cross-platform <span class="reference">Test
430 Engine</span> that encapsulated all of the program logic, with platform-specific
431 plugins filling in functionality. In the end, we had to write classes to handle
432 much of a common GUI program's functionality: file handling (based on C++ Library),
433 file system, 2-D graphics, sound, movies, printing, timers and window manager.
434 The data format was made compatible across platforms. </p>
435 <p>To support the feature set of a large program like <span class="reference">One-on-One</span>,
436 the <span class="reference">Test Engine</span> was expanded to support an arbitrary
437 number of windows, frames within frames (like HTML) and much more dynamic content.</p>
438 <p>The final product is a very web browser-like product that runs on both Windows
439 and Macintosh natively, with no performance advantage on either platform and
440 about 90% code shared. Most importantly, the <span class="reference">Test Engine</span>
441 has no code customized to <span class="reference">One-on-One Version 2.0</span>.
442 All functionality and content of <span class="reference">One-on-One</span> is
443 defined in RTF data files, a script file and supporting media like pictures,
444 sounds and movies and is completely separated from the <span class="reference">Test
445 Engine</span> code. Thanks to assertions, there was far less of a need for debugging
446 than on previous projects and the completion of <span class="reference">One-on-One
447 Version 2.0</span> was far easier than <span class="reference">One-on-One Version
448 1.0.</span></p>
449 <hr>
450 <h3>Web-based Content Management </h3>
451 <p>I started writing web applications in October 1999 on my own web site, <a
452 href="http://www.earthli.com">earthli.com</a>.
453 After some research, I chose the now familiar Apache/PHP/MySQL development environment.
454 My first real application was a photo gallery to share vacation photographs
455 online. Each photo album belonged to a user, who was able to edit it when logged
456 in. The public could browse through the entire album with read-only access.
457 Later, a list of editors was added to albums to allow collaboration between
458 users.</p>
459 <p>My next project was a project manager for keeping track of change lists, revisions
460 and build history for various projects. It occurred to me that this project
461 and the previous photo albums shared many similar characteristics, which would
462 be required of almost any collaborative web application. Each required user
463 accounts, user validation and rights management, support for user comments and
464 so on. I began creating these shared components with the goal of building the
465 project manager on top of them.</p>
466 <p>From this work grew the <span class="reference">earthli Forums</span>, which
467 implemented a robust security model, nested folders, nested comments, anonymous
468 user tracking etc., but still wasn't built generically enough; it didn't allow
469 easy adaptation to other applications. Late in 2001, I began work on the <span class="reference">WebCore</span>,
470 which would incorporate the code from the <span class="reference">Forums</span>,
471 but adapted to a more generic framework and whose API would be defined by a
472 class-hierarchy.</p>
473 <p>The <span class="reference">WebCore</span> has several properties:</p>
474 <ul>
475 <li>Content is treated as contained within a nested hierarchy of folders. Folders
476 can inherit rights from their parents. Any application can define multiple
477 types of objects.
478 </li>
479 <li>Anonymous browsing is supported seamlessly with logged-in users.</li>
480 <li>The security model is enforced within the library, returning only data that
481 the browser has been validated to see. Users can be granted individual rights
482 to create, modify, delete, purge content or modify rights within folders.
483 </li>
484 <li>Folder level rights can be granted to anonymous user, registered users,
485 to a group of users or to individual users.
486 </li>
487 <li>User level rights can be granted or denied regardless of folder to ban users
488 or create administrators.
489 </li>
490 <li>Every piece of data in the system is exposed as an object. Each object records
491 its creation and modification information. Objects are retrieved using query
492 objects that handle pagination and rights enforcement.
493 </li>
494 <li>Proper separation of code and display logic is emphasized. The web pages
495 themselves deal only with PHP objects; queries are made through an object
496 layer, so the pages themselves are not only unaware that a MySQL database
497 is used, they are unaware that an SQL database is being used at all. In many
498 cases, other PHP objects, like grids and trees, handle display and HTML generation
499 as well, .
500 </li>
501 <li>Full-text searching is supported in the query object.</li>
502 <li>Several other classes are available, including a browser class for determining
503 the user agent, a text formatter class for displaying HTML data and a grid
504 class that works with the query classes to paginate objects into a grid.
505 </li>
506 </ul>
507 <p>Version 2.0 of the <span class="reference">Photo Albums</span> was built on
508 top of the <span class="reference">WebCore</span> at the same time as the <span class="reference">WebCore</span>
509 itself was being developed. Soon after, the second application to be built with
510 the <span class="reference">WebCore</span> was <span class="reference">earthli
511 Recipes</span>, which was ready for testing and demonstration in just over a
512 week. During development of the <span class="reference">Recipes</span>, I created
513 a set of pages that handled setting user and folder rights and creating, editing,
514 deleting and viewing comments that could be used 'as is' if no customization
515 was required by the application. This would help bring future application up
516 to speed even more quickly.</p>
517 <p><span class="reference">earthli News</span> followed soon after and allowed
518 me to retire the old <span class="reference">Forums</span> software and use
519 only applications build with the <span class="reference">WebCore</span>. The
520 fact that the <span class="reference">WebCore</span> handled the bulk of the
521 processing, validation and querying left me free to focus on designing a better
522 interface for presenting news. Also, fixed bugs and new features are applied
523 to all earthli applications simultaneously because of the large amount of
524 shared code. My latest <span class="reference">WebCore</span> application
525 is creating the project manager I started over a year ago. Once again, it's
526 off to a quick start because so much of the functionality is already available
527 in the <span class="reference">WebCore</span>.</p>
528 <p>With the <span class="reference">WebCore</span> stabilized at version 1.1,
529 development on the next version began in mid-April and continued until mid-August
530 of 2002. This version had several goals in mind:</p>
531 <ol>
532 <li>Move more of the display code into a class-based GUI library that would
533 handle forms, grids, menus and more.
534 </li>
535 <li>Standardize the API, using similar feature names where possible and classes
536 to encapsulate all common tasks.
537 </li>
538 <li>Replace the labyrinthian startup code for the webcore with a simple class-based,
539 easily customizable interface.
540 </li>
541 <li>Remove dependencies on global variables, either constants, automatic PHP
542 variables or PHP special handling (like magic quotes).
543 </li>
544 <li>Allow a page to hold objects from multiple webcore applications at once
545 (remove reliance on shared constants and give all objects a reference to the
546 application environment in which they run).
547 </li>
548 <li>Clean up the file hierarchy to facilitate learning and documentation.</li>
549 </ol>
550 <p>The first release was version 1.2, to which all existing applications were
551 upgraded in mid-July. This release incorporated the new gui library; the forms
552 library was particularly useful for encapsulating a lot of shared code and fixing
553 many validatation errors that existed. The next release was version 2.0, which
554 changed the entire framework to use two global objects, a PAGE object and an
555 APPLICATION object. All other objects, be they queries, gui objects, application
556 objects, etc. are retrieved from these two objects using an intuitive API. The
557 move to this simpler, more powerful framework allowed goal 4 above to be satisfied
558 more easily and, since all code is now encapsulated, a page can reference multiple
559 <span class="reference">WebCore</span> applications, satisfying goal 5 above.</p>
560 <p>These updates haven't changed the functionality of the <span class="reference">WebCore</span>
561 applications on the surface, but the increased code-sharing and more maintainable
562 code fixed many errors and bugs and makes it much easier to create new functionality
563 going forward. Even more, the library is far more usable and extendable, since
564 the earthli-specific code has been extracted and re-cast as a layer on top of
565 the new library, moving the <span class="reference">WebCore</span> that much
566 closer to being released as a product.</p>
567 <h2>Education</h2>
568 <h3>Hamilton College, Clinton, New York</h3>
569 <p>Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics in May, 1994<br>
570 Major: Mathematics; Minor: Physics</p>
571 </div>
572 </div>
573 <?php
574 $Page->finish_display ();
575 ?>
576