This is the seventh entry in the O’Reilly Radar series about how alpha geeks got into computers. James Duncan Davidson created Tomcat and Ant just to get those animals on the cover of the O’Reilly books he wrote about them, and ended up with neither. However, he did write a book on Mac OS X Tiger and got a Tiger on the cover of that. He now lives in Portland where he writes, consults, and takes photographs of our conferences to feed his Banana Republic habit.
James Duncan Davidson’s Story
I’ve always had computers around–well, for at least as long as
really matters. My schools had the very first Commodore PETs. The
first computer my family had was an Apple ][ that my Dad bought. It
was maxed out with not just one, but two external floppy drives. But,
even before then, I was playing with Integrated Circuits and the like
with various projects my Dad and I worked on.
After that came a Commodore 64, then an array of IBM PC’s. There was
always something to play with. And, connectivity came soon to the
family as well. That first IBM PC had an archaic 300 baud modem that
I used to dial in to whatever I could. Games like Castle Wolfenstein
and the like were always fun to play, but the best game for me was
always figuring out how to get online, whether through the BBSs,
FidoNet, or later the honest to goodness Internet.
Computer languages for me were always a means to an end. I learned
BASIC in school of course, and a smattering of other languages as
needed to get things done. I didn’t really get hard core into
programming until the Web. Before then, I was much more interested in
Computer Graphics, especially as they related to my studies in
school. I was going to be an Architect and build buildings one day.
And I was going to use computers to help me do it.
But then the Web came along and sucked me in. I learned all sorts of
programming languages along the way to help me make the back ends to
all sorts of websites–how to make the Architecture of the Virtual
World real. And then I found I was good at software and the pursuit
of an Architecture degree faded in favor of playing in the brave new
world. One thing lead to another and pretty soon I was a Software
Architect at Sun where I had the opportunity to contribute several
things to the Java platform. Never in a million years could I have
guessed that my work on Tomcat and Ant would be so widely used and
affect so many people. It was, and remains, one of the most awesome
and humbling experiences in my life.
After my long stint in the Java world, I moved on and branched out. I
wrote a few books. Wrote some more software. And did a lot of
consulting to help several other companies write some kick-ass
software. At the same time, I’ve had the opportunity to turn my hobby
of taking pictures into a part-time professional gig. It might seem a
bit random at first, but at heart, I want to create beautiful things
and digital photography has given me a way to do that.
As far as where I might go next, well, that’s always hard to guess.
But I know that I will continue to try to find beauty in whatever I
do. Software or Art. It’s all craft and I’ll keep trying to be a good
craftsman. And, I’m sure it will all be digital.