# Alan Shaw

> Functional Programmer, San Francisco

Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/alanshaw

Refactoring to reduce technical debt is my daily practice. Experienced in both object-oriented and functional programming. Swift, Objective-C, Clojure/Script, TypeScript, and JavaScript/ES6. Familiar with UNIX/Linux/MacOS. Previously: Flash/Flex; C/C++, Java, Perl, etc.

I've made games, web sites, interactive applications, and geometric and image-processing software. Skilled in evaluating, refactoring and porting existing code.

Currently working in tax prep software, lots of data manipulation, UI components (re-frame / ClojureScript), Firebase back end.

## Work Experience
### Software Engineer @ Tallyfor
Jan 2021 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area

### Instructor @ egghead.io
Jan 2018 – Present | The Web
I make instructional videos on JavaScript, Mac, and functional programming.

### Professional Freelancer @ Gun.io
Jan 2019 – Present | San Francisco, CA
Certified freelance engineer on the Gun.io platform.

About Gun.io - Gun.io helps world-class engineering teams hire the world's most sought-after freelance engineers at a moment's notice.

### Independent Developer @ nodename llc
Jan 2005 – Present | San Francisco, CA
Various development projects on apps, web sites, and games; originally Flash/ActionScript and Flex, later JavaScript, Clojure/Script and a little TypeScript. Open source: https://nodename.github.io/projects

### Lead Programmer @ Slide Rule Software
Jan 2015 – Jan 2018
Glass Planner is an iOS calendar and planning app. Created an experimental version of the app using ClojureScript and React Native using a statecharts library I implemented in ClojureScript to control the user interface. Later took over the existing Objective-C application and prepared it to sync across the user's devices. This required a great deal of refactoring and writing substantial new code in Swift in a functional style.

### contractor @ Adobe Systems
Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 | San Francisco, CA
(Technology and Experience Innovation group) Java and front-end programming on a middle-tier and mobile analytics solution.

### consultant @ Home Box Office
Jan 2009 – Jan 2010 | New York, NY
(HBO GO and Cinemax GO)
I specialized in refactoring to patterns, implementing test suites, and building the application’s service layer. On Cinemax GO I concentrated on the event-driven messaging architecture and integration of a deep-linking library.

### Senior Developer @ Nabbr.com
Jan 2008 – Jan 2009 | New York, NY
Created a UI widget for user interaction with advertising video content

### Research Associate @ On2.com
Jan 2000 – Jan 2001
Responsible for development of a Platform-Independent GUI, a system allowing the programmer to use XML to specify window components, their properties, and their dynamic screen layout. 

Portions completed before the project was cancelled:

Wrote a layout engine in C++ for use with GLUT and OpenGL.  The engine uses an XML parser to convert a description file into a tree of objects which dynamically reshape subwindows in a running application in response to events affecting the main window.

Wrote an object-oriented API on top of GLUT which allows the programmer to register callback events on individual windows.  (GLUT itself provides global callbacks only.)

### Assistant Vice President @ Lehman Brothers
Jan 1993 – Jan 1999 | New York, NY
C++ infrastructure development for equity trading applications

### Assistant Research Scientist @ NYU Medical Center
Jan 1984 – Jan 1989
Applications programming in C to support a project to measure the mapping of the visual field onto the surface of the visual cortex.
* 3D surface reconstruction from planar contours, dealing with complex branching
* 3D scan conversion of polygonal surfaces into voxel representation
* Unfolding of 3D surfaces to 2D using gradient descent to produce an optimal flattening


## Education
### MS in Computer Science
New York University

### MA in Chinese
St. John's University


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nodename

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Source: https://flows.cv/alanshaw
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/alanshaw/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-10