Looking for new challenges

Fair warning: In this blog post I aim to sell myself. I'm looking for an exciting and challenging new freelance engagement.

I'm a software developer and I have been one professionally for about 20 years now. I have deep experience, and I continue to learn and create. I know what real-world codebases look like, and I know software development is also about people. I think I can offer lot of value. I can develop software for you, and I can also help you improve the way you develop software.

I see myself as a creative developer -- I want to invent things to improve life for myself and others. Creativity is what attracts me to software development the most. Creativity is transformative. If you need a bit of transformation in your software, talk to me.

I'm a web application developer. I've focused on web development since the late 90s. In that period I've seen the web grow from static websites and with a few server-side Perl scripts thrown in to the dynamic application platform it is today. I started developing web applications with the server-side, the only game in town then, but over the last 10 years I've shifted more and more to the client-side and JavaScript, where much of the creativity is today. I am however still very much at home on the server as well. I've done React, I've done REST, I've done hypermedia APIs, I've dug into GraphQL. If you need a web developer with deep insight in the whole stack, look no further.

I've focused on Python for the better part of my software development career. I came to Python early; I have seen Python grow from a small language with no name recognition to the enormously popular language it is today. I greatly enjoy using it. I've also criticized it where I felt it was needed, painful as it was. If you need a very experienced Python developer, contact me.

But in the last decade I've started to use JavaScript more and more. Thanks to the React community I've learned a few new things about functional programming; it's exciting to see it become relevant to the web. I haven't stopped looking at interesting new languages. I'm a developer who can look beyond a single programming language.

I have repeatedly demonstrated I can take a large piece of software and transform it:

• Back in the day, I rejuvenated the Zope web framework with Five, a technology that is still in use by the Plone CMS today.

• I took libxml2, a huge C library that was difficult to use for Python developers, and created the most powerful XML library in the Python world: lxml. I used the predecessor to Cython to do this (in 2004!).

• I created a simpler, better way to use Zope with Grok. I've helped add web capabilities to existing codebases with a deep history.

I can help you open up your codebase to new possibilities.

I can build on other people's foundations, but I can also build new foundations. In the last few years I've created Morepath, a web framework that compresses the power I expect into a few thousand lines of Python code.

I'm not afraid to say I've also created many a thing that went nowhere. In 2010 I created Obviel, a client-side web framework. I took concepts like model/view separation and templates and a form library and brought them to JavaScript and the client. I thought I was doing something new in 2010, something that people hadn't really thought of yet. It turns out everybody had the same idea about the same time. Backbone burst upon the scene and Obviel never got any traction. Now I'm a frontend web framework hipster; I was doing them before it was cool. It was worth it, because I gained deep insights in what makes a frontend framework tick.

These days I prefer to use React for front-end application development. React is awesome. With React Native a mere web developer such as myself can even build a real mobile app. Want a developer that loves React but is also tempered by experience? Look no further.

I'm looking for a new challenge. I want to help build, create and transform. I work from home (in the Netherlands) so I can enjoy my family and garden, but I can certainly come visit you on a regular basis. I write code, I write docs, I write tests, I give talks, I give training, and I review your code. I am open, constructively critical and honest. I contribute a bit of insight here and there. My services are not cheap, but they are worth it.

In summary, here I am: a very experienced, creative web developer who looks a little bit beyond what's in front of him.

Think you have an interesting challenge for me? Please drop me a mail at faassen@startifact.com and let's talk.