User Spotlight - Tracy Miranda
What do you do?
I am founder of Kichwa Coders, a software consultancy for Eclipse tools for science and embedded software. I started the company 8 years ago to focus more on solving different clients' technology problems with open source. With my background in electronics, the focus was first on embedded tools, and then more recently the equally-challenging scientific tools. I like how Eclipse gives you access to lots of different technology, so some days I'm integrating Java & Python to solve problems in the scientific space, other days I'm empowering engineers to improve their tool usability and still others I'm experimenting with fun prototypes for Internet of Things solutions.
How long have you been using Eclipse?
Since 2003. The company I worked for was choosing between using Eclipse or building their own IDE. Fortunately I was able to help convince them to back Eclipse, and that saved me from having to reinvent dockable windows. My very first tech conference was EclipseCon 2004, held in of all places, Disneyland! It was great. I'd like to think I went into the conference a hardware engineer and came out a software engineer... well at least I learnt all about APIs. Over the next ten years I attended many more conferences, and in 2015 I was on the programme committee for EclipseCon France. Working with a great team, I got to ensure there was good content for the newbies, the hardware engineers, the scientists, well everyone really. It was terrific, like coming full circle and seeing how the more you put into the community, the more you get out of it.
Name five plugins you use and recommend:
- CDT: my very first open source project, and at the time I was one of the first participants in CDT from outside North America. I just love it. CDT drives innovation in the embedded world - small hardware start-ups focus on their core technology knowing CDT gives them great tools to compete with the big names.
- PyDev: the Python development tools for Eclipse that are so awesome they are the driving force behind commercial tools like PyCharm. PyDev is huge in science.
- AnyEdit: Adds to Eclipse some of the key missing features that arguably the IDE should have as built in. The additional items in the Compare to menu, such as to Opened Editor or Clipboard are part of my regular use.
- Target Platform Definition DSL and Generator: On the one hand this plug-in is a key tool for anyone managing target files. It makes target files (via the custom .tpd file) a text editable file with some nice features (autocompletion, outlines, validation, etc.) . On the other hand, this plug-in exemplifies the rich tool set of the Eclipse ecosystem that you can build such a tool by leveraging things like EMF & XText. This one plug-in perfectly epitomizes what I love about the rich Eclipse ecosystem.
- EASE :the Eclipse Advanced Scripting Environment is a relatively new kid on the block, but one with big ambitions. It is trying to plug one of the biggest holes in the Eclipse IDE ecosystem: the lack of a standard IDE scripting environment. Users coming from other tools such as Visual Studio have long expected such a feature, so it is a delight that EASE is coming along nicely now. I'm also looking forward to working more with EASE in 2016 to solve Python scripting & macros for Eclipse.
What's your favorite thing to do when you're not working?
When I need to hit things I play badminton (at least a couple of times a week!). I also am part of Toastmasters - another great open community that's great for personal development, not just for public speaking but for leadership as well. But really when I'm not working most of my time is spent with my two young kids. Parenting life and working in tech often don't play well together - it's the biggest integration challenge ever and I'm still trying to figure it out . But it's worth it watching the kids grow & discover their world - they are so creative, so inspiring and so utterly exhausting.