Preface

Compared to my friends, I was a late bloomer when it came to programming. I only discovered it in high school by chance because I needed another computer course, and my guidance counselor suggested Computer Ed. I was expecting to learn about how computers work, but, much to my surprise, the course was about programming. It didn’t take long before I was hooked, and I adjusted my career direction from one dealing with building architecture to one in software architecture.

In 2001, I landed a job with Dovico Software helping it maintain and improve its C++ client/server application. The winds of change were blowing, and in 2004, Dovico decided to switch to a software-as-a-service model, and I moved to the web application product. I still helped maintain the C++ applications, but my core focus became web development with C# and JavaScript. These days, I still do web development, but my focus has shifted to the architecture side of things—building APIs, working with databases, and exploring new technologies.

I enjoy being able to give back to the developer community through blogs and public speaking. In September 2017, I was asked if I’d be interested in giving a presentation at a local user group. As I was browsing for ideas on what I could talk about, I ran across an article from PSPDFKit that talked about a technology called WebAssembly (https://pspdfkit.com/blog/2017/webassembly-a-new-hope/).