About Me

I'm an experienced software developer and I've been building systems using Java since its very first public release. At work, I develop server-side software, mainly for Linux systems. Outside of work, I've had some fun building Open Source desktop software and you can find my projects here on GitHub.

My Open Source Projects

I've enjoyed developing these projects and they have also been a great way to experiment with technology and to learn. The systems themselves are useful to me and I hope to others too. They're fully self-contained so please do download them and give them a try for yourself.

• VocabHunter helps learners of foreign languages find vital new vocabulary to study.
• Santulator is a Secret Santa draw generator that creates beautiful PDFs for each participant.

Blogging

From time to time I blog, sharing ideas and things I've learned about technology that I think might be useful to others. I mainly use the VocabHunter Blog to publish my articles. Here are some of my posts:

• Installable Java Apps with jpackage - In this article I share what I learnt about using jpackage to create self-contained bundles from Java applications. The great thing about these bundles is that you can distribute your application without requiring your users to first install Java.
• Open Source & Secret Santa with Santulator - This post gives a few details on how Santulator works behind the scenes including how JavaFX CSS is used to create the festive colour scheme in the user interface.
• How JavaFX was used to build a desktop application - A detailed look at several important features of JavaFX using VocabHunter as an example.
• Read (Almost) Any Document in Java - How you can use Apache Tika to read documents in a wide variety of formats ranging from Microsoft Word through to PDF.
• Dependency Injection in JavaFX - How Gluon Ignite and Google Guice are used for the Dependency Injection in VocabHunter.
• User Interface Testing with TestFX - A guide to automating user interface tests using TestFX. Both VocabHunter and Santulator include a complete automated GUI test suite and in this article I explain how these suites work.
• Building a JavaFX Search Bar - How the user interface for the VocabHunter search bar works with details of the use of ControlsFX in giving the bar a distinctive style.
• VocabHunter - A tool for learners of foreign languages - An introduction to some of the technologies being used in VocabHunter.