Application:

"PQ Lines"

A cross-platform mobile application developed for displaying key safety information to energy transmission service staff. Simple in it's functionality, but with a relatively well-formed code base.

Why did I choose to build this project?

A business need was apparent that would be best addressed and solved with an app that's native to mobile devices, as this app would be used by energy transmissions service staff when outside "in the field". As this app displays key safety information, it is imperative that it functions, is fast, and is device agnostic to Android and iOS devices.

What challenged you when making this project?

The tech-stack chosen to build this native mobile app was "Xamarin.Forms" on .NET, and as it allowed mostly device agnostic "code-once, deploy anywhere" to either Android or iOS devices, it seemed viable. However, to perform minor tweaks specific to Android and iOS, required coding parts of the app using proprietary languages other than C#, which I was not familiar with.

How did I get unstuck?

As "Xamarin.Forms" was very much in its early days at the time of app development, there was a supportive online community that I reached out to for assistance via online forums.

What was my process for completing this project?

Following the Agile methodology under the Kanban framework.

What would I do differently next time?

Once I become very proficient in JavaScript, I would develop the native app using well-established, popular frameworks such as "React Native".

Source:

https://github.com/chullman/PQLines

(Note: some images omitted from the source for copyright reasons)

Key Technology:

I had built this application using an early iteration of Xamarin.Forms - an open source cross-platform framework for building native iOS and Android applications with .NET.

The key advantage of this framework is that I was able to write foundational code that was device-agnostic, meaning I could effectively "code once" and the framework will automatically render the functionality to both iOS and Android at the native level. Additionally, Xamarin.Forms still allowed for device specific tweaking of app functionality and design where necessary without needing to know any mobile device specific proprietary programming language.

Screenshots:

Screenshot of main page of 'PQ Lines' mobile app

Screenshot of sub-page of 'PQ Lines' mobile app

Application:

"Console Text Adventure Game"

A console-based text adventure game with a full featured Natural Language Processing (NLP) implementation and use. Features full text input parsing, recognised by the NLP system, including the use of full Named Entity Recognition (NER) support, so points of interests like real world locations are recognised.

Why did I choose to build this project?

This was a personal hobby project of mine to both satisfy my curiosity of implementing and utilising NLP to parse full human English text sentences, akin to the early commercial "Zork" text-based video games from the 80's and 90's, as well as provide the opportunity to prove and showcase my, at the time, very skilled knowledge in C# and object-oriented design patterns and principles.

What challenged you when making this project?

By far, the biggest challenge was parsing the text input using the adopted NLP framework to handle types of words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, proper nouns, and conjunctions. Thankfully, the NER database provided with the framework helped somewhat with this, but still, the implementation of such for my game was a challenge.

Additionally, checking for handling multi-worded commands was also a challenge. The command "get rock", for example, is relatively easy to handle, as we have the verb "get" meaning to try and put something in the player's inventory, and the noun "rock", which is the object to get. The phrase "pick up rock", however, is more complex, because of the space between "pick" and "up", trying to ensure that this isn't treated as two separate command directives.

How did I get unstuck?

Extensive Test Driven Development with all sorts of possible combinations of possible English sentences proved successful.

What was my process for completing this project?

As it was my own personal project, I had no expectations for commercial deployment or distribution of the game, so I very much got stuck into it.

What would I do differently next time?

The game runs as a Windows Console executable. This is not easily distributable, so once I become very efficient in JavaScript and web development, I would like to deploy and show my game on a website using a "virtual" command-prompt for the text display and input.

Source:

https://github.com/chullman/text-adventure

Key Technology:

I had purposely over-engineered the source code for this application so I can showcase and best demonstrate my skills and knowledge in .NET and C# code design. For example:

The code strongly aligns with SOLID design principles.
Various object-oriented design patterns were followed where suitable - i.e. those in reference to the "creational", "structural", and "behavioural" classifications of patterns.

Although this application is currently hard-coded as a .NET console application, the code base has been well designed and architectured so that it can feasibly be transferred to, for example, a web-based platform utilising JavaScript for the user interface.

Screenshots:

Screenshot example of console 'Text Adventure' game app

< C# and .NET />

Skills and Experience

Championed the development of multiple greenfield Windows Service/cron job applications to meet and exceed real-world business needs, build with C# under the .NET 4.5.x Framework.
Both contributed to and spearheaded the design, development, support, and administration of all phases of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) for any given project to address real-world business needs.
Prior strong competency in using the Visual Studio IDE efficiently and accurately for an optimal coding and deployment experience.
Frequent implementation of and exposure to Domain Driven Development (DDD) to ensure the application models the business' needs and structure.
All object-oriented programming using C# that my team and I conducted adhered to the SOLID (acronym) design principles to ensure a robust code-base that can be easily tested and maintained.

Example Projects I've Done:

> Project 1

Native Mobile App - Xamarin | .NET

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> Project 2

Desktop Console App - .NET

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