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Ben Galbraith – The state of developer tools

Web Directions South 2009, Sydney Convention Centre, October 8 11.45am.

Presentation slides

Session description

For many years, developing for the web left quite a bit to be desired when it came to the tools at developers disposal, particularly in comparison with the sorts of development environments available for desktop applications.

But the rise of browser native tools, in Safari, Internet Explorer and Opera, browser based add-ons like Firebug, web based tools and more mean that developers have a vast array of powerful tools to help develop, debug, profile and otherwise improve their applications. But, just what’s out there? And what can be done with them?

In this session, co-founder of Ajaxian.com, and The Ajax Experience conferences, and now head of Mozilla Foundation’s new Tools team Ben Galbraith will take us on an expedition through the developer tools landscape. Learn what’s out there, and what they can do to make you more productive, your sites and applications better and faster, and your life as a developer more enjoyable.

About Ben Galbraith

Ben Galbraith PortraitUntil recently the CIO of MediaBank, a well-funded software start-up in the advertising industry, and General Manager of Feature50, a boutique software production company, Ben Galbraith, along with Dion Almaer, now heads up Mozilla’s new developer tools team. Ben has long juggled interests in both business and tech, having written his first computer program at six years old, started his first business at ten, and entered the IT workforce at twelve. He has delivered hundreds of technical presentations world-wide, produced several technical conferences, and co-authored over a half-dozen books.

Prior to his current roles, Ben acted as CEO of Ajaxian.com, a media property and related conference series he co-founded. He has enjoyed a variety of other business and technical roles throughout his career, including CIO, CTO, and Chief Software Architect roles. He lives in Draper, Utah, with his wife and four children.

Photo credit: Sean O’Shaughnessy.

Follow Ben on Twitter: @bgalbs

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