In the current state of the world where we are living which
is filled with devices and other gadgets that interact and connect with each
other through the power of the Worldwide Web and software and applications that
provide targeted solutions for specific problems, it is very easy for people to
forget that there are actually real people behind all the technology that they
are using in their day to day lives.
One of the people whose job and passion is to develop such
technology to help people is software engineer and part-time app developer
Jomar Tigcal.
Jomar is a Computer Science graduate and is now working as a
software engineer in an IT company here in Metro Manila. After graduating in
2009, he immediately dove into the IT industry with his first job as a Java developer.
As he was slowly immersed into the world of information technology through his
work, he found a number of interesting topics about different aspects of
developing solutions for other platforms.
One of them is app development for Android – one of the top
selling mobile operating systems in the market. During that time, he still had
a lot of technologies and APIs, such as those from Google, Facebook and Twitter,
he wanted to learn. But after getting himself an Android phone, he started to
focus more on developing apps for this platform especially during his free
time.
At present, Jomar is using a variety of different tools to
create apps. Most of them are open-source tools and are available for free
online like Eclipse for his IDE and the Android SDK (Software Developer Kit)
tools. For version control, he’s using Subversion and Git while for the OS,
Jomar said that he has used several versions of Ubuntu and has tried some
mock-up software.
As of the time being, Jomar Tigcal has already released
several apps on Google’s app market – Google Play. These include a Pinoy Jokesapp, the GDG Philippines app, Sweldong Pinoy (a salary calculator app for
Filipinos) and the Moochfood app which was developed closely with the Moochfood
team. He also hinted that he is already working on a few more apps, but the
details of which are not to be disclosed yet.
When asked on what problems he has faced in the past about
app development, Jomar says that one major hurdle he has faced and is still
facing today is time. He explains that there is so much to learn and try but he
just doesn’t have the time to do all of it at once. As he is just a part time
developer, he need to constantly juggle the requirements of his work as a java
developer with his passion and interest of apps development.
Nevertheless, Jomar adds that finishing an app gives him great
joy and satisfaction. Aside from that, getting messages that you made a good
app, or that it has helped a lot of users of that people like the app you made makes
him feel good.
As for new horizons, Jomar hopes to learn more about game
development, either using HTML5 or game engines, as well as learning better
cross-platform development technologies.
We also asked Jomar to leave a message to our readers and
here are his tips to aspiring app developers and his message to all our readers:
Don’t stop learning. Continue to study about the technologies and languages you use. Keep up to date with the latest information about them. Also, don’t limit yourself to the technologies you’re using now at work. Use other technologies and APIs too. Experiment! Attend events like meet-ups and hackathons to learn more about what is happening in the industry as well as to be updated with the latest technologies. Also, community events would allow you to meet and collaborate with other developers.
Lastly, Jomar adds that making apps for mobile and web is
fun and exciting because it changes how people go about their everyday lives.
He hopes the people would continue downloading his apps and that people would
give more feedback on how they can improve them in order to better address the
needs of the people who use them.
If you want to contact Jomar Tigcal for personal or
professional reasons, you can reach him through his LinkedIn account or you can
visit his website for more information.
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