Being a Programmer
As of July 25th, I’ve been employed full time as a programmer in the small but not-to-be-underestimated town of Ellsworth, Illinois. The greatest challenge is this position is that I am the one and only software programmer at this location, leaving the bulk of all engine, game play, and tools development to me, one piece at a time. The upside is that the standards are mine to define. Fortunately the boss here is a big fan of “take the necessary time and do it right the first time”. According to the stories I hear from colleagues and friends, this is somewhat an exceptional attitude among managers who don’t know anything about programming. I consider myself fortunate to be in this environment.
The downside (or rather… the challenge) is that the project I’m working on is very loosely defined in technical terms. I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments to the codebase from the get-go, trying out different operating systems (no small feat), and testing out different implementations of graphics rendering libraries for compatibility and ease of use. So far I’ve tested five operating systems (Ubuntu Linux, Windows XP, CE 6.0, CE 5.0, Mobile 6.0), and used three different graphics libraries (OpenGL, OpenGL ES 1.1 [Vincent3D], and OpenGL ES 2.0 [Imagination Technologies PowerVR SDK]) to find the right combination for the project.
All this makes for a completely unique development experience for me. Some of the aspects of working here will surely smooth out a bit as this first project gets wrapped up. But in mean time… it’s back to the whiteboard, and time to write Test Rendering Engine 3.0!
Windows Embedded
Ubuntu Linux
Vincent 3D
Imagination Technologies PowerVR SDK