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David Chisnall

David Chisnall arrived at the Swansea University in 2000, looked at the sun and sea, and decided to stay there. Three years and one degree later, he was no longer under the illusion that the sun was a regular feature, but was persuaded to remain for another degree by the promise of a desk with a view of the sea. During his time as a PhD student, he worked hard at the best known of postgraduate activities: procrastination. This involved writing portions of A Practical Guide to RedHat Linux, Second Edition and regular articles for InformIT and a local tech news startup (which, as these are prone to do, has since gone bust). He is a founding member and core developer of the Étoilé project, which aims to build an open source user environment based for desktop and mobile computing systems.

In spite of his best efforts, he managed to do some research in the areas of out of core pre-fetching algorithms and system simulation, and it wasn't long before his supervisor started reminding him that a thesis was a requirement of a PhD. Knowing that a large task required an even larger distraction, he also agreed to write a book on the workings of Xen. This appeared to work, and he was able to complete his thesis within a fortnight of sending the complete draft to the publisher. He has since re-discovered sleep, and taken up dancing salsa while enjoying the (temporary) lack of deadlines.

On February 1, 2010, Mike Riley posted a highly favorable review of Cocoa Programming Developer's Handbook on Dr Dobb's CodeTalk. Feel free to read the review for yourself. We'd like to leave you with Mike's closing paragraph:

"Overall, anyone committing themselves to developing for the Apple platform and already comfortable with Objective-C will find David Chisnall's book an excellent reference for all things Cocoa. The author's breadth and depth of knowledge are astounding, and the fact that he shares this education so thoroughly and effectively are testaments to his developer and communicator abilities. Every OSX developer should have this book on their desk."

1.
Understanding ARM Architectures
Aug 23, 2010
2.
Writing Portable C
Aug 17, 2010
3.
Engaging Open Source Communities
Aug 9, 2010
4.
Designing Abstractions
Aug 2, 2010
5.
Web Graphics, Part 3: WebGL
Jul 26, 2010
6.
Web Graphics, Part 2: Scalable Vector Graphics
Jul 19, 2010
7.
Web Graphics, Part 1: The Canvas
Jul 12, 2010
8.
Introducing OpenCL
Jul 6, 2010
9.
Understanding the Cocoa Text System
Jun 28, 2010
10.
Replacing Flash with Cocoa
Jun 23, 2010
11.
Cocoa Programming Fundamentals: UNIX Tools in Cocoa
May 27, 2010
12.
Inside the Symbian Kernel
Apr 26, 2010
13.
IPv6: Why Bother?
Apr 16, 2010
14.
Writing a Good Set of Coding Conventions
Apr 12, 2010
15.
SCTP: Reinventing Internet Communication
Apr 5, 2010
16.
Objective-C for Java Programmers, Part 2
Mar 29, 2010
17.
Objective-C for Java Programmers, Part 1
Mar 12, 2010
18.
Exploring HTML 5
Mar 8, 2010
19.
How to Make Money with Free Software
Mar 8, 2010
20.
Objective-C Design Patterns
Mar 5, 2010
21.
Grand Central Dispatch: Exciting or Overhyped?
Mar 2, 2010
22.
Introducing HTML 5
Feb 15, 2010
23.
The State of Open Source 3D
Feb 9, 2010
24.
What Is Mac OS X?
Feb 5, 2010
25.
Snow Leopard: The Underhyped APIs
Jan 29, 2010
26.
Foundation: The Objective-C Standard Library
Jan 26, 2010
27.
Cocoa Tips: Exposing System Services
Jan 22, 2010
28.
Cocoa Tips: Don't Reimplement Standard Functionality
Jan 15, 2010
29.
Localizing Cocoa
Jan 8, 2010
30.
How Core Animation Changed Cocoa Drawing
Jan 4, 2010
31.
Using Distributed Objects in Cocoa
Jan 1, 2010
32.
Inside Modern X11 Programming
Sep 18, 2009
33.
Making JavaScript Fast, Part 2
Sep 15, 2009
34.
Security in Your Pocket: OpenBSD on ARM
Sep 11, 2009
35.
Making JavaScript Fast, Part 1
Sep 8, 2009
36.
The Failure of the GPL
Aug 31, 2009
37.
How Not To Optimize
Aug 21, 2009
38.
A Half-Way Step to Apple’s Source Code: An Interview with David Chisnall
Jun 5, 2009
39.
Advanced Flow Control for Objective-C
Jun 5, 2009
40.
Erica Sadun on the iPhone SDK, OS X, and the Computing Landscape
Jun 5, 2009
41.
From NeXTSTEP to Cocoa: Erik Buck on the Development of Cocoa and Objective-C
Jun 5, 2009
42.
Fun with the Objective-C Runtime
Jun 5, 2009
43.
Marcus Zarra and Matt Long on Core Animation
Jun 5, 2009
44.
Steve Kochan on the Evolution of Objective-C
Jun 5, 2009
45.
The Technology NeXT Gave the World
Jun 5, 2009
46.
Where the Web and the Desktop Meet: An Interview with Lee Barney
Jun 5, 2009
47.
Pandora: An Open Console
Jun 2, 2009
48.
The Future of Wireless Networking
May 15, 2009
49.
GNU or Linux?
May 11, 2009
50.
Debugging C-Family Languages
Mar 27, 2009
51.
How Small Is Your PC? The Rise of Netbooks and Other Small Form-Factor PCs
Mar 23, 2009
52.
David Chisnall's CPU Feature Wishlist
Mar 13, 2009
53.
The Dynamic Languages Renaissance
Jan 30, 2009
54.
Robert Seacord on the CERT C Secure Coding Standard
Dec 15, 2008
55.
Objective-C for C++ Programmers, Part 3
Nov 21, 2008
56.
Objective-C for C++ Programmers, Part 2
Nov 14, 2008
57.
Objective-C for C++ Programmers, Part 1
Nov 7, 2008
58.
Writing Insecure C, Part 3
Oct 24, 2008
59.
Writing Insecure C, Part 2
Oct 17, 2008
60.
Writing Insecure C, Part 1
Oct 10, 2008
61.
iRex iLiad e-Reader: Linux's Answer to the Kindle?
Aug 29, 2008
62.
How It Works: Filesystems
Jun 13, 2008
63.
How the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure Works
May 23, 2008
64.
How It Works: Virtual Memory
May 21, 2008
65.
What Is C For?
May 16, 2008
66.
The Future of eBooks
Apr 25, 2008
67.
Imagining an Open Network
Apr 18, 2008
68.
Understanding How Xen Approaches Device Drivers
Mar 21, 2008
69.
Examining the Legendary HURD Kernel
Mar 14, 2008
70.
Competition Among Open Source Compilers
Feb 1, 2008
71.
Inside Your OS: What is a Process Scheduler, and How Does it Work?
Jan 25, 2008
72.
Bad UI of the Week: Read This (OK/Cancel)
Jan 18, 2008
73.
The End of the Desktop Era
Jan 11, 2008
74.
The What and Why of Open IM
Dec 28, 2007
75.
A Look at the Modern X Server
Dec 21, 2007
76.
The Future of Digital Media
Dec 14, 2007
77.
The Future of Identity
Dec 7, 2007
78.
Bad UI of the Week: Ask Forgiveness, Not Permission
Nov 21, 2007
79.
Copyright Versus Free Software
Nov 16, 2007
80.
Is Computer Science Dying?
Nov 9, 2007
81.
A Brief History of Programming, Part 2
Nov 2, 2007
82.
A Brief History of Programming, Part 1
Oct 26, 2007
83.
The 700MHz Question: Will the Wireless Spectrum Auction Lead to Innovation or More of the Same?
Sep 28, 2007
84.
Bad UI of the Week: The Menu Bar
Aug 24, 2007
85.
The Dark Corners of x86
Aug 17, 2007
86.
Bad UI of the Week: The Cross-Platform User Interface
Aug 17, 2007
87.
Bad UI of the Week: The Mythical "is Like" Operator
Aug 10, 2007
88.
Bad UI of the Week: Don't Make Me Tell You Twice...
Aug 3, 2007
89.
Bad UI of the Week: Kettles and Washing Machines
Jul 27, 2007
90.
The BBC iPlayer Controversy Explained
Jul 20, 2007
91.
Bad UI of the Week: The Mitten Mouse
Jul 20, 2007
92.
Bad User Interface of the Week: File It Under “Bad”
Jul 13, 2007
93.
Bad User Interface of the Week: The DVD
Jul 6, 2007
94.
A Roundup of Free Operating Systems
Jun 22, 2007
95.
DragonFly BSD: UNIX for Clusters?
Jun 15, 2007
96.
CPU Wars, Part 3: Put Your Left ARM In
May 18, 2007
97.
CPU Wars, Part 2: POWER to the People
May 11, 2007
98.
CPU Wars, Part 1: When the Chips Are Down
May 4, 2007
99.
ZFS Uncovered
Apr 6, 2007
100.
Vector Programming with GCC
Mar 30, 2007
101.
Free Software Versus Open Source Software
Mar 16, 2007
102.
What Programming Languages Should You Know?
Mar 9, 2007
103.
Standardizing UNIX
Feb 2, 2007
104.
Prolog: Logic Programming for Rapid Development
Jan 26, 2007
105.
POSIX Parallel Programming, Part 3: Threads
Jan 19, 2007
106.
POSIX Parallel Programming, Part 2: Message Passing
Jan 12, 2007
107.
POSIX Parallel Programming, Part 1
Jan 5, 2007
108.
The Nokia 770 Revisited
Dec 29, 2006
109.
The Open Source Desktop Myth
Dec 22, 2006
110.
Separating Style and Content: LaTeX and Typesetting
Dec 1, 2006
111.
GNUstep: A Free Software alternative to OpenStep
Nov 10, 2006
112.
Behind the Scenes of Objective-C 2.0
Nov 3, 2006
113.
The Future of CPUs: What's After Multi-Core?
Oct 27, 2006
114.
What Makes a Good Programming Language?
Oct 20, 2006
115.
Emulation: Role-Playing for Computers
Oct 13, 2006
116.
NetBSD: Not Just for Toasters
Oct 6, 2006
117.
POSIX Asynchronous I/O
Sep 22, 2006
118.
Breaking Down GPL Version 3
Aug 18, 2006
119.
The Role of Binary Drivers in a Free OS
Aug 4, 2006
120.
Security Is a UI Problem
Jul 28, 2006
121.
Debunking the Myth of High-level Languages
Jul 14, 2006
122.
A Taste of Erlang, a Dynamic, Asynchronous Message-Passing Language
Jun 30, 2006
123.
Alternatives to LAMP
Jun 2, 2006
124.
BSD Packaging Systems
May 26, 2006
125.
DRM: Digital Rights or Digital Restrictions?
May 4, 2006
126.
Introducing OpenBSD 3.9
Apr 28, 2006
127.
The Need for Virtualization and Xen
Mar 31, 2006
128.
Making Effective Software TCO Calculations
Mar 24, 2006
129.
10 Things I Hate About U(NIX) Revisited: Readers Speak
Mar 17, 2006
130.
Comparing Open Source Licenses: GPL vs. BSDL
Feb 3, 2006
131.
BSD: The Other Free UNIX Family
Jan 20, 2006
132.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Application Security Policies
Jan 13, 2006
133.
The Cost of Free Software
Dec 9, 2005
134.
Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Week-long Test Drive
Nov 18, 2005
135.
10 Things I Hate About (U)NIX
Nov 4, 2005
136.
The Lure of Open Source Software: Why Consider It for Your Business?
Oct 14, 2005

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David Chisnall

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