2007-09-07

About Me

My name is David Wragg, and this is my personal site. Here is some background information about me.

I live in London, working for LShift. See my résumé for a career-oriented view of my life.

Most of my life has been spent in London. But in 2002, I moved to Moscow, Russia, and lived there for 5 years.

I first got interested in computers when I was 6 years old, learning BASIC on a Sinclair ZX81. Since then, I've spent a lot of time writing software to make computers do interesting things, including performing complicated tasks, doing things fast, and getting lots of computers to work together.

In 1993, I discovered Linux and other open-source software (though it was still called free software back then). The really big deal for me was not the free-as-in-beer part, but the free access to its source code. Before that, learning to write real software was a bit like learning to write novels without actually having read any. The free software movement provided a whole library of works to study, imitate, critique, and improve upon. I've been using Linux ever since, and I still enjoy browsing the source code when I have the time. Over the years, I've contributed modest enhancements to quite a few open-source projects.

As a result of reading and writing lots of software, I have a deep interest in what makes good software: How can we best balance demands such as maintainability, quality, performance, usability, and effort, taking into account the circumstances under which the software is developed? What advances in programming languages and software technologies can help to reconcile these demands? I've been exploring these issues in my work for many years now, and I expect to continue for the rest of my career.

I have interests unrelated to computers, but they are broad rather than deep. One of my most abiding interesting is learning about ancient history and civilizations. I find that examining the course of human achievement over the course of many hundreds of years provides a wonderful sense of perspective on the world around us.