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I am currently available for work from May 2013 onwards. Please mail me at marc@anyware.co.uk.

About me (or the tl;dr version)

My name is Marc Palmer - I’m a freelance senior developer & product designer. I blog about technology and business at transition.io.

I’ve been programming and creating software products for 30 years, over 24 of those in commercial environments. I have written code in 68000 assembly language, Pascal, “C” & C++, through to Java, Grails, Groovy and Objective-C. I’ve also been product manager for many projects during that period.

Aside from development work, I can also help you and your team do things better.

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What I do

I write server-side applications using Grails, and mobile applications for iOS in Objective-C.

I have created lots of Open Source Grails stuff under the banner Grailsrocks including several popular Grails plugins such as the Resources framework, Platform Core, Platform UI, Feeds, Bean-Fields and Cache-Headers. I get excited about using Grails to hide development complexity.

I typically do client work on Grails applications and plugins, providing Grails/Groovy development and mentoring for established companies and startups. I also offer consulting on application usability and user experience.

I am able to produce relatively high quality technical documenation where required, for web APIs or in-house libraries. I have also been commissioned to produce in-house screencasts and presentations to train team members in aspects of Grails development.

Contact me if your team could do with some help.

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Recent projects

I spent the last year or so with Spoke Technologies as architect and developer of the back-end API for their SPOKEnPHOTO™ iPhone and iPad applications, as well as consulting on team development processes.

I also recently helped CentraStage migrate their application to Grails 2.2, and helped Brinqa improve their Grails application.

Recently I published my first albeit small e-book, a user guide for The Email Confirmation Plugin published using LeanPub. The aim was to test the market for low cost, high quality user guide documentation and the time required to produce high quality documentation of this kind.

I also created my first Kickstarter project to see if the Grails community can fund the development required for a release of Grails Resources Plugin 1.2. While this was not successful, it was a valuable experience and enabled the community to move forward with the work required.

…and on a complete tangent, I recently released a free tool call uncoop.me for UK Co-operative Bank customers to download their bank statements (something which is impossible using the online banking service) in CSV or OFX format by way of an advanced bookmarklet.

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Achievements

I was a some-time core Grails development team member, although mostly I shout from the sidelines these days.

Over the years my contributions to Grails core became less about code and more about the user experience. Initially I contributed to the creation of the Codecs mechanism, Artefact API, Custom Validators and the Stacktrace sanitization that was then carried over to Groovy itself. More recently GSP whitespace handling, the Resources framework integration and the design of the improved Grails 2 stacktrace rendering.

I launched a startup called NoticeLocal, of which I am a founder and original architect.

Some of my most novel ideas/work achievements include; The Grails Resources plugin which is now part of the default Grails 2.0 offering and the improved stack trace output, delivering more user-friendly exception traces to developers.

In the dim and distant past I designed and implemented a novel solution for The Met. Office used in shipping, for visualizing tidal swell and wind forecasts over time to establish viable time-windows for shipping activity.

Amusingly, I once had to design and implement a client/server system for display-less mobile fax machines to receive and send e-mail and browse web sites. Yes, the only display was printing onto paper.

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Talks I have given

It doesn’t happen often but I have been a speaker at conferences including

• GGX 2012 on Platform-Core and Platform-UI
• GGX 2011 on keeping Grails one step ahead and Weceem CMS
• GGX 2010 on Resources Plugin
• JAX London 2010 Yes you CAN use Grails

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Availability

Please write to me at marc@anyware.co.uk to ask about my current availability.

You can also follow me on twitter @wangjammer5 or github

Please note: I'm not interested in working on defence projects, for companies that perform testing on animals, gambling related products, or projects that are directly based on environmental damage / fossil fuel extraction or any other stuff that I consider to be a bit nasty. Ethics are complicated - if in doubt, please ask!

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Skills

I’ve been using and contributing to Grails since version 0.4. I have many years experience of Java, Groovy, JavaScript and Objective-C.

I started out programming around 1983 with Basic (ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro). I then got into machine code with some 6502 assembly language and then moved to 68000 assembly language on the ATARI ST, Pascal and Object Pascal, C, C++ and Java, JavaScript and Groovy and most recently Objective-C. I can do PHP and some AppleScript, but like most sane people I don’t like to.

While I can code all these, please note that I don’t take paid work currently for anything except Grails or iOS development.

I’ve a good eye for usability and a creative outlook, but I will strongly recommend your team gets a professional designer to work with the development team.

I’m Apple all the way.

Work history

Skills in detail

Some people want to know all this. You probably do not.

Programming languages: OOD/OOP - over 15 years; Objective-C 3+ years, Groovy 6+ years; Java well over 10 years; JavaScript, PHP. Ancient stuff: Borland Delphi 4 years, Borland C/C++ & OWL 3 years, Borland C++ Builder 1 year; Borland/Turbo Pascal 4-7 & TurboVision library 3 years; Motorola 68000 Assembly Language 3 years;

Technologies: iOS SDKs 1 through 6; OCUnit; HockeyApp; CocoaPods; Grails 0.4 to 2.2; Grails Plugins; jQuery & jQuery UI; RESTful services; Basecamp API; Lucene; Java from 1.1.8 to 1.6; JUnit; Spring; J2ME CLDC/MIDP/MMAPI; J2ME CDC + Foundation; JAXP & XML parsers; Extensive hand-coded HTML & XHTML Authoring - 10 years; Advanced XML authoring (DTDs, parsed external entities etc.); DocBook XML/XSL Authoring; Apache FOP - 1 year; Apache Tomcat - 7 years; Resin; WebMacro template engine; IBM WebSphere/J9 VM with J2ME CDC/Foundation on Linux StrongARM platform; Java Cryptography Extensions, BouncyCastle, Rijndael, 3DES & RSA ciphers.; Java Advanced Imaging API (JAI); Java 3D; JavaComm serial communications API; GSM Modems & GSM AT+ command set, SMS Message protocol; OSGi 1 and 2; IBM SMF, Prosyst, Gatespace and SUN JES OSGi implementations; JavaCard 2 applets for Maxim/Dalsemi iButton devices;

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