About me
I'm Hugh Watkins. I've been writing software for 40 years, starting on an Apple II I bought with Baskin-Robbins money back in 1980.
What I do
I'm a backend developer with fullstack experience, currently most at home in Elixir. I like functional programming and think LiveView is the best way to build web applications right now. Over the years I've worked in C, C++, Java, Python, Ruby, and Erlang.
I also run DevOps organizations. I've been on AWS since 2006 when S3 launched, and use GCP for some projects.
What this site is about
Outside of work, I restore vintage electronics -- CRT monitors, old TVs, and classic computers. This site is where I document the repairs: what went wrong, what I replaced, and what I learned along the way.
Writing
I'm also a sci-fi author. My debut novel Retro Fold is available on Amazon.
Retro computing projects
- visicalc -- Fully annotated disassembly of VisiCalc (1979) for Apple II, line-by-line 6502 assembly documentation.
- retroscope -- Apple II tracing disassembler in Rust. Boots disk images in a built-in 6502 emulator, records every instruction and memory access, then produces annotated disassembly with automatic code/data classification.