(My last name is pronounced POT-chee.)

I'm a programmer.  I wrote my first program in the fall of 1981.  It was in Dartmouth BASIC, on a PDP-11 running RSTS/E, and I typed it in on a teletype printer.  (I guess to current undergraduates, I must look a lot like Mel in the StoryOfMel.)

I wrote my first cgi script for the web in April, 1994 (on an intranet, no less). I still think I came late to the party.

Most of my professional career has been as a contractor; the plurality (but not the majority) of my code has been in Java.

My current contract is writing SoftRealTime point-detection software in CeePlusPlus -- not my favorite language, but the GNU autotools and a bunch of custom Emacs macros make it bearable.

Python has taken up most of my off-hours programming time lately: volunteering on the BioPython project - mostly upgrading their unit tests, which use the PythonUnit testing framework; helping out JeffElkner with his (amazingly bright) high school students at Yorktown High School in Arlington, VA; using ZopeApplicationServer and ZWiki.

Before that, I did a lot of PHP work; PhpUnit is useful, and I've made it more useful (email me if you want my enhancements; I keep meaning to clean it up for public release). I extended the short PhpWiki with things like email notification of changed pages. Since I use PHP 4, objects work pretty nicely for me; I only wish I didn't have to keep typing "$this->" over and over (OK, in emacs I just have to hit C-., but still).

And before that, I did lots and lots of Java: writing servers and middleware, interfacing with relational databases, building Swing GUIs (I managed to avoid AWT in its earlier incarnations), and porting apps from C++ to Java.

I'm always looking for the next contract, so if any of the above skills would be useful to you, email me: gpaci at tiac.net .

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I discovered Wiki from a reference to the JavaIdioms pages back in late 2000.

I love the way Wiki works; I've set up wikis for other geographically-dispersed organizations, and try to tend them every once in a while to help the users get the most out of them.

I've been following the XP mailing list more and more over the past year, and Wiki less and less (there are only so many hours in a day). I keep meaning to summarize interesting threads from the list to Wiki; I encourage others to do so, too.

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'''Things I Like:'''
	* My 1-year-old son James and my 3-year-old son Joe, both of whom are obsessed with fire trucks and the nearby fire house
	* PythonLanguage
	* Patterns
	* XP
	* Java
	* PhpLanguage
	* MountainDew
	* Wiki
	* Walking
	* Milkshake (my cat)

'''Things I Don't Like:'''
	* QualityWithoutaName is, philosophically speaking, a bunch of crap
	* Mockery on Wiki
	* Words with no clear meaning, yet plenty of use (cf. ArchitectureDefinitions)

'''Things I Definitely Need to Look Into:'''
	* Python's DocTest framework: I helped JeffElkner get started with it last weekend, and now he swears by it.

I think about information constantly, and the part of my brain that got a Philosophy bachelor's is making some decent headway.

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If you're in the Washington, DC area: check out the WashingtonDcAreaXpUsersGroup, or the neighboring AgileMaryland group.

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'''Interesting Finds on Wiki:'''
	* AncientChanges
	* RedneckSmalltalker (think Jeff Foxworthy)
	* RecursiveMakeConsideredHarmful
	* YabbitsAndAntiYabbits (12/16/98)
	* OnlySayThingsThatCanBeHeard
	* WhyNotRefactorHomePages
	* FixBrokenWindows
	* BodyFollowsEyes
	* ComponentDesignPatterns
	* LordOfTheFlies (not what you think)
	* BigDesign vs. CowboyCoding
	* JavaUnit and CodeUnitTestFirst
	* OverTime

'''Stuff So Interesting That I've Actually Contributed to It:'''
	* IfYourCarWereEmacs
	* PhpUnit
	* The StoryOfMel
	* ProfileBeforeOptimizing
	* TruckNumberFixed
	* MoreFunWithTruckNumbers
	* RefactoringWithRelationalDatabases
	* NaiveModel

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'''Messages:'''
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''Peter:''

''I noticed your edit on VeePython; does the RealBasic stuff actually have something to do with VeePython, or was it meant to go somewhere else?''

''--GeorgePaci''

It depends. I am trying to point out that the loop construct employed in the example can be improved, so it does belong there. But since nearly all languages have that loop construct, my contribution belongs on a page about language structure also. I am not sure which page though.

-- PeterLynch

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