http://invisible-island.net/
Copyright © 1998-2022,2023 by Thomas E. Dickey


RESUME – there is no resume on this website

Sorry. No resume.
Most resumes contain factual errors anyway.

I maintain this web site and ftp area to distribute programs that I work on in my spare time. It is separate from the work which I get paid for.

Roles...

Judging by the email which I receive, many people believe that I am either

though neither term is appropriate.

Not a coder

In current (2014) terminology, I'm a software developer. Some people use the term computer programmer; however that has taken on a menial connotation. Some others use "coder", but that is a derogatory term, used to demean the person referred to.

I am readily identifiable through this website as well as by my interactions in mailing lists, bug-tracking systems, news groups since 1994 and their offspring web forums (fora). You may recall some of that, useful or not, particularly when I am terse.

Beyond developing...

Publicly, I am often referred to as a maintainer of various programs. Besides my own development and fixes, I get bug reports, from various sources. As part of this activity, I maintain change-logs to cite

Keep the self-service model in mind when making suggestions for program improvements.

All of these programs are copyrighted although a couple are distributed as “public domain” (i.e., very permissive). A few individuals want more than they contribute, leading to misattribution and plagiarism.

(Mostly) old programs

I've been writing computer programs for a while (though see here for predecessors). During the early/mid-1990s, I also contributed to a variety of programs such as sharutils. For "newer" programs, I maintain software archives on my home network. Those run on a variety of operating systems (the more, the better). Sometimes people comment on the low number of compiler warnings in my programs.

While my work has been cited in technical literature, I prefer making useful software programs, and publishing those. Sometimes people write books in which they discuss my work.