Bill Horsman

I like to build beautiful interfaces that do useful jobs so that people can get things done quickly, easily and with fewer mistakes.

I've been adding things to the Internet since 1997 and have used lots of tools to do so, but throughout it all runs HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

1. 1982 ~ Sporadic coding in BASIC for fun
2. 1992 ~ Got paid small amounts of money for writing code
3. 1994 ~ Made enough money to pay the rent and buy food
4. 1997 ~ Wrote code that ran on the Interwebs
5. 2007 ~ Started using Ruby on Rails version 1
6. 2018 ~ Joined Team Tito, helping to build Tito and Vito
7. 2023 ~ Still here, still using Ruby on Rails but also things like Vue

• 31 years worth of mistakes; doing things the hard way; learning from what went wrong. Trying to learn even more from what went right.
• Finishing projects and standing by them in production. Coding isn't all about the thrill of the latest thing - it's also about detail and making it work.
• Striving to make things as simple as possible - whether that's for the end user or for another developer on my team. Or me, six months down the road. Clever solutions aren't necessarily cool.
• It takes a lot of thought to make something simple.
• Rigorous, automatic testing so I have the confidence to make changes.

I've worked for banks, telecoms, government, education, distribution, retail and news media. Some of it has been at the leading edge using the latest tools; some of it has been the rigor of maintaining a financial system. All of it has taught me a great deal:

• Language skills like Ruby and JavaScript
• Coding skills like testing and transparency
• Business skills like communication and commitment