Hi, I'm
Alan
I code here
A star, a sign of progress or doom, one does not know
A blimp of hope
A steam punk city laid waste
A hero image of a hero - scroll to leave here
A hero image of a hero - scroll to leave here
A hero image of a hero - scroll to leave here

About

Explorer

I'm a self-taught explorer at the intersection of fluid art, design, and technology. A minimalist, I prefer to keep things simple. You'll find me in different corners of the world, always learning.

20 years

…that's how long I've been coding, so I've picked up a thing or two, or twenty. I started with COBOL, C/C++, dBase, and FoxPro. These days, you'll find me working in Python, JavaScript, and Rust, though C++ remains an essential tool in my kit. I'm grateful I've been able to do something I love for as long as I have.

What am I up to?

I'm currently writing my own language, mostly to satisfy an itch. There's plenty of helpful documentation out there, but it's not always presented in a way that appeals to my sensibilities. I built this website to document the occasional happy hurdles I run into (and that others might too), along with the solutions I've found along the way.

Blog

CMake: a tutorial

CMake is a build system generator that allows you to create build scripts (like Makefiles, Visual Studio projects, etc.) in a platform-independent way. It helps manage the build process for C/C++ projects.

TableGen in MLIR: a tutorial

We explore TableGen features in the context of the MLIR pipeline. We do this at a leisurely pace. There's plenty of code examples, so maybe fire up the laptop to read this if you haven't already.

Contact

Call sign
Let's talk

I'm always happy to connect and chat—tech, tools, curiously wild ideas—any of it, all of it. I love talking about human-centered design and how to quietly fix the world, one commit at a time.