Eric Gach

Desk Changer is a Gnome Shell extension written in TypeScript that automatically rotates the desktop wallpaper. Users can select from predetermined intervals or set a custom schedule. By leveraging modern Gnome Shell features, the extension's daemon continues to run seamlessly, even when the user's session is locked. For publication on the Gnome Shell Extension website, the TypeScript code is transpiled into clean, readable JavaScript, formatted with Prettier to aid in the review process.

The project has evolved significantly since conception. It was originally written in JavaScript with a separate Python daemon to overcome early Gnome Shell limitations on the lock screen. As the project matured, the daemon was rewritten first in Python to improve maintainability, and ultimately in GJS (Gnome JavaScript) to provide a more native experience and reduce external dependencies.

This portfolio is a living project, serving as both a showcase for my work and a platform for my continued learning. It has evolved significantly over the years, adapting to new languages, frameworks, and architectural patterns.

The current version utilizes a modern, multi-repository architecture where projects from different tech stacks are integrated seamlessly. All content is centrally managed via Contentful as a headless CMS, with a shared portfolio.css package ensuring a consistent design.

Previous iterations of this site include:

• PHP & Symfony: A monolithic application built with the Symfony Framework, MySQL, Composer, and a front-end powered by Yarn and Webpack Encore.

• Python & Django: A version built on the Wagtail CMS (using the Django Framework) with a PostgreSQL database and django-sass-processor for front-end assets.

To solve the challenge of maintaining a consistent UI across a portfolio built with multiple languages and frameworks, I created this centralized front-end package.

It provides a robust design system built with Dart Sass and includes essential JavaScript utilities for shared UI components. The package is designed for flexibility, allowing any of my projects to easily integrate its styles and scripts. For developer efficiency, it includes TypeScript definitions and is privately distributed via GitHub Packages. All code is maintained to a high standard using ESLint and Prettier.

SiTech is a code library that I wrote for PHP several years ago and have not actively maintained in a couple of years. It was originally my alternative to using a full framework or the PEAR Library as they were both heavy with dependencies. The purpose of SiTech being a library was so that you could easily use individual parts of the library, much like a framework, but without the dependency on any other part of the library. Since writing it I have started to use other code libraries and, at this point, no longer wish to maintain my own. Some day I might attempt to rewrite this library for PHP 7 using some of the newer features in the language and apply some newer patterns that I myself have learned.

SimpleIRC is a project I created several years ago. It was initially written to be an IRC bot, but my insight changed to wanting more of a library than a client. At first it was written in PHP, but after finding limitations when creating reloadable code modules, I rewrote the project in Python. Several years back I unfortunately lost the original code in a hard drive failure and did not have backups. I have not, since, taken the time to recreate the original work.