Hey there! My name is Gabriel, I live in Prague, and I'm the author of The Kotlin Primer. Before you start reading, I want to welcome you to my corner of the internet and share a bit about myself.
Pretty much as far back as I can remember, I've always had a deep passion for technical subjects, particularly mathematics and programming. This has been the driving force behind most of my life, and strongly influenced every aspect of the path I've been on.
I earned my Bachelor's degree in Cybernetics from University of West Bohemia, where I graduated summa cum laude. I originally studied pure mathematics for two semesters but switched to cybernetics because the math was more interesting. My lifelong dream, and goal, is to spend my retirement returning to academic life.
After graduating, I became co-owner of SugarFactory, a SugarCRM Reseller Partner. With me serving as its CTO, we built SugarFactory from the ground up and became one of the fastest-growing SugarCRM partners in Europe, achieving Elite status in just under two years. SugarFactory was eventually acquired by Algotech a.s..
Taking advantage of my experience in SugarCRM, I went on to build Glucose, a code-generation tool that dramatically reduces the time it takes to customize SugarCRM, and QuickQuery, a custom-built, user-friendly query language that transpiles to SQL, complete with parser, compiler and syntax highlighter.
At about the same time, I joined the team at Etnetera a.s., a Java-centric organization, where I kickstarted and oversaw a company-wide migration to Kotlin. It was during this time, and for this purpose, that the Primer was born.
I started to write the Primer mainly because I felt dissatisfied with available Kotlin resources. I wanted to provide a comprehensive, user-friendly, real-world-inspired guide that caters to Kotlin enthusiasts while also imparting general programming knowledge. Among other things, my background in mathematics gives me a special appreciation for the intricacies of functional programming, and the Primer is a stepping stone for venturing into this beautiful world. I strongly emphasize teaching clean code and architectural best practices along the way.
Today, my primary focus revolves around helping both companies and individuals transition from Java to Kotlin, write clean code, and learn the principles of functional programming. Don't hesitate to reach out if you want to say hello, follow me on Twitter/X to get notified when I publish new articles, and I look forward to helping you on your path to mastering Kotlin and becoming a more proficient programmer!