Carson Gross /// Senior Software Engineer

Contact Info: carson@bigsky.software
https://bigsky.software
https://www.linkedin.com/in/1cg/
https://github.com/bigskysoftware

Overview

I am a full stack developer comfortable with both front-end & back-end development. I am interested, in particular, in working on hypermedia-driven systems & with people willing to step outside the bounds of what "everyone else" in the industry is doing.

I am not actively looking for a position, however if you are interested in contacting me regarding a consulting engagement through Big Sky Software, please email me.

If you think I am a perfect fit for a full-time position I am happy to chat, with the caveat that I intend to keep teaching part-time at MSU for the foreseeable future.

Work Experience

2020 - Present	Instructor - Montana State University CS Dept. https://www.cs.montana.edu At Montana State, I teach the following classes: CSCI 366 Systems - survey of computing: transistors and assembly, through C and up to cloud programming CSCI 440 Databases - database practice and theory CSCI 468 Compilers - compilers, targeting JVM bytecode ESOF 322 Software Engineering - modern software development practices (git, CI workflows, TDD, etc.) Student Selected Professor of the Year - 2020, 2021
2020 - Present	Principal - Big Sky Software https://bigsky.software Big Sky Software provides software consulting services and supports my open source work
2012 - 2021	CTO & Co-Founder - LeadDyno https://leaddyno.com I co-founded LeadDyno, a leading affiliate referral tracking system & helped guide it to a successful acquisition in 2021. At LeadDyno, I did the following: Full stack development for our platform (mainly Ruby On Rails) Designed the core data model Designed the job processing model Built intercooler.js for our application front end needs
2006 - 2012	Senior Staff Engineer - Guidewire Software https://guidewire.com At Guidewire Software I worked on both applications and, mainly, on the J2EE-alternative platform Guidewire created Worked on a custom, JSF-inspired web framework (PCF) Worked extensively on gosu, a byte-code compiled scripting language for Guidewire’s enterprise systems Member of the technical SWAT team, brought in when a product was in trouble or had particularly challenging technical issues Full-stack enterprise Java development: SQL tuning, caching, performance analysis, testing, etc.

Open Source Projects

htmx	A popular alternative front end library that uses AJAX and hypermedia to enable more sophisticated user interfaces at a fraction of the complexity of Single Page Application (SPA) libraries like React
_hyperscript	An event-oriented scripting language for front end development. Built to complement htmx, and inspired by HyperTalk, the scripting language for HyperCard
idiomorph	A DOM-morphing algorithm akin to Morphdom, that uses id sets to achieve more stable DOM-morphing behavior with fewer IDs in a document.
missing.css	A CSS framework that minimizes DOM intervention needed to achieve good styling and layout, with an emphasis on ARIA-driven styling, sponsored by Big Sky Software
intercooler.js	The predecessor to htmx
jschema	A schema mechanism for JSON
gosu	A byte-code compiled scripting language for the JVM

Skills

I am comfortable with the following:

Web & Cloud Development: I founded LeadDyno, a SaaS product, built in Ruby on Rails and deployed on AWS, with the usual back-end components: MySQL/PostGreSQL, Redis, S3, etc. I have created and maintain two alternative front end libraries, htmx and its predecessor intercooler.js. I also created an alternative front end scripting language, hyperscript
SQL & Databases: I have worked with databases for 20+ years, and I teach the database class at MSU
Java & The JVM: I worked on a JVM programming languages and teach the compilers class at MSU, which targets JVM Bytecode
Testing: I have long experience with testing, although I have a perhaps idiosyncratic take on the topic.
Software Patterns: I teach the software patterns class at MSU, including development methodologies such as agile, continuous integration, testing, etc.
Programming Languages: I have built multiple compilers and studied programming languages in graduate school.

Selected Writings

HATEOAS — An Alternative Explanation - https://htmx.org/essays/hateoas/
The Hypermedia-Driven Application Architecture - https://htmx.org/essays/hypermedia-driven-applications/
Locality of Behaviour (LoB) - https://htmx.org/essays/locality-of-behaviour/
HATEOAS is for Humans - https://intercoolerjs.org/2016/05/08/hatoeas-is-for-humans.html
The API Churn/Security Trade-off - https://intercoolerjs.org/2016/02/17/api-churn-vs-security.html
The Grug Brained Developer - https://grugbrain.dev/

Selected Interviews & Talks

Return To Hypermedia: Solving Javascript Fatigue Using Fundamental Web Architecture - https://youtu.be/LRrrxQXWdhI
htmx - Clean, Dynamic HTML Pages on Talk Python - https://youtu.be/4wjqsPtj2QY
Simple, Fast Frontends With htmx on PyCharm by JetBrains - https://youtu.be/cBfz4W_KvEI
htmx: Writing JavaScript to Avoid Writing JavaScript on JetbrainsTV - https://youtu.be/u2rjnLJ1M98
REST, HATEOAS & Django at DjangoCon US 2021 - https://youtu.be/u2rjnLJ1M98

Academic Record

2004–2005	*Stanford University, Masters of Science in Computer Science. Palo Alto, California* Emphasis on Programming Languages
1994–1999	*University of California, Berkeley, Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering. Berkeley, California* Graduated With Honors Alpha Pi Mu – Industrial Engineering Honor Society

Personal Interests

Fishing, hiking, skiing, baseball, technology, economics, philosophy, comedy.