Thomas Harte
[Image unavailable] |
IRC nicks: |
TDRH, BritBloke (*wince*), probably some others I don't remember |
Personal web site: |
||
E-mail address: |
<thomas.harte AT SPAMFREE gmail DOT com> |
How were you involved with TPU?
Damned if I really remember. I remember hanging around #tpu and talking to at least ApM and Psion, but that's about it. So, probably: I just hassled people.
I seem to be listed in the surviving Teen Programmer's Journal as planning to help with Samo's OS, so probably I intended or did help with that also.
How about a capsule summary of the programming you did in your TPU years?
If people remember me at all, it'll be for a few "1 hour projects" (exactly what it says: basic versions of Tron Bikes, the Atari 2600 game Combat, and Space Invaders), a later obsession with writing emulators (I definitely did the Space Invaders arcade machine, the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Master System and Colecovision during my TPU time), a lot of software 3d work including a portal based Descent engine rip-off and various aborted attempts to write a 3d board game. Probably I had more or less "left" TPU in 1997 or 1998.
The homepage listed above has all of the old source that I've so far been able to salvage from my past but a lot is still missing...
What are you up to now professionally and/or academically?
I graduated from the University of York with an undergraduate degree in Maths and Computer Science in 2003, obtained a Graduate Diploma in Law in 2004 and passed the Bar Vocational Course in 2005, subsequently being Called to the Bar of England & Wales — i.e. I'm a barrister, though I can't practice because I never went on to do the apprentiship-style pupillage year. I now work as a write/editor.
What are your favorite programming languages and tools today?
Nowadays I prefer Cocoa/Objective-C and SDL/C++. Though I'm actually rubbish at C++ and barely use its functionality. But I don't program that much really.
What sorts of software are you most often developing lately?
The most interesting thing I continue to develop is the emulator ElectrEm, which was the first PC-based emulator of the Acorn Electron and still the most accurate and far and away most popular.