Volume Number: 26
Issue Number: 08
Column Tag: MacTech Spotlight

The MacTech Spotlight: Jayson Adams, Circus Ponies Software

http://www.circusponies.com

What is your company?

Circus Ponies Software, Inc.

What do you do?

I am the VP of Technology at Circus Ponies.

How long have you been doing what you do?

I have been at Circus Ponies since 2002, but I started writing apps for the NeXT platform back in 1989. I've been writing code since 1979.

What was your first computer?

It was a TRS-80, complete with Microsoft BASIC, 16k of RAM, and cassette tape storage.

Are you Mac-only, or a multi-platform person?

We're Mac and (in the future) iPad/iPhone - does that make us multi-platform? We don't support more than that.

What attracts you to working on the Mac?

The care and detail that Apple puts into making the hardware and the operating system. And the very powerful development environment that allows a few people to create applications that would take ten times that many on other platforms.

What's the coolest thing about the Mac?

I love the Dock (I run with Magnification turned on).

What is the advice you'd give to someone trying to get into this line of work today?

As far as programming goes, write, write, write. The more you write, the more familiar you'll get with the frameworks and systems, and the more you'll learn to program defensively so that you avoid your common mistakes and survive those made by others.

What's the coolest tech thing you've done using OS X?

I'd have to say a feature of our NoteBook application which is the ability to add sticky notes and flags to pages in your Notebooks. These sticky notes are rotated a few degrees from horizontal and you can edit their text at that angle (in most cases an app that displays rotated text will force you to edit the text unrotated). These sticky notes and flags can also stick out beyond the edges of your NoteBook document.

Ever?

Back in 1995 I wrote the equivalent of the Appkit in Java. At the time it looked like Java was going to be huge so I named it the Revolution Kit. I also wrote the equivalent of Interface Builder, which I named Constructor. That was the technology behind a company of mine called Netcode which we sold to Netscape in 1996, and which became known as the Internet Foundation Classes. Unfortunately it devolved after that into what's now known as the Java Foundation Classes/"Swing."

Where can we see a sample of your work?

Check out NoteBook at http://www.circusponies.com. NoteBook is the most popular way to get organized on the Mac. It recently won a Macworld 2010 Award from Macworld magazine in the UK.

The next way I'm going to impact the Mac universe is:

Wait 'til you see NoteBook running on the iPad.

If you or someone you know belongs in the MacTech Spotlight, let us know! Send details to editorial@mactech.com