The MacTech Spotlight: Björn Winckler
Volume Number: 25
Issue Number: 12
Column Tag: MacTech Spotlight
The MacTech Spotlight: Björn Winckler
What's the name of your company?
KTH (Stockholm, Sweden)
What do you do?
Currently studying for a PhD in Mathematics
How long have you been doing what you do?
I've been at university for the past eight years and before that I worked as a games programmer for about four years.
What was your first computer?
Commodore 64
Are you Mac-only, or a multi-platform person?
Mac-only and enjoying it!
What attracts you to working on the Mac?
The simplicity — I like the fact that everything is so well integrated and that I don't have to waste time reinstalling and configuring programs.
What's the coolest thing about the Mac?
The hardware I'd say: I have a MacBook Air and it really is an incredible computer.
What's the coolest tech thing you've done using OS X?
MacVim of course!
Ever?
A few years back one of my (NTFS) drives crashed and the file system got corrupted. I tried desperately to find some drive recovery software but either they were too expensive or just did not do what I needed. In the end I wrote my own app to scan the drive and ended up salvaging almost all the lost files. That was pretty exciting!
Where can we see a sample of your work?
Visit the MacVim home page:
http://code.google.com/p/macvim/
and download the latest snapshot build to try out MacVim. There you can find links to the source code repository as well.
The next way I'm going to impact IT/OS X/the Mac universe is:
I like working on projects that I myself have some real use for and since programming is more of a hobby for me it has to be fun as well. Who knows what the future may hold...
What else should we know?
MacVim would not be where it is today if it wasn't for the generosity of its users: a while back my old iBook G4 started acting up on me and I could no longer do any development. I put up a note on the MacVim website asking for donations and not long thereafter I had received enough money for a shiny new MacBook Air.
Vim itself was created by Bram Moolenaar and if it wasn't for the hard work that he and all Vim contributors put in, MacVim would not exist at all. If you enjoy using MacVim I encourage you to show your support by donating to Vim's charity (see www.vim.org).
My blog is a repository for random notes that I want to remember and that may be of interest for others as well. It's not updated often, but you can take a look at it.
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