TypeScript Holiday

by Adam Retter

Q: Are you an experienced TypeScript developer who would like to mix some conversation and coding, with some time to relax and explore Malaysia and Singapore?

Q: Are you free between 21st October 2018 and 18th November 2018 (for 2 weeks or more)?

Bonus Q: Do you know anything about developing extensions for Visual Studio Code, or Theia IDE?

Well keep reading...

I am looking for someone who would like to spend between 2 and 4 weeks with me beachside in Johor Bahru in Malaysia, starting an Open Source project in TypeScript. This is not work as such, it is not employment, it is not paid; all of the code will be developed as Open Source and made available for free on GitHub.

The goal of the project is to create a new IDE/Admin Tool/Console/Dashboard for my R&D project - Project Granite. Let's call this new tool, Project Pebble. Yes, I am terrible at names! We can come up with "marketable" names later when the software is done ;-)

What is Granite? Granite is a NoSQL document database server. At present Granite is still in development and not yet available as Open Source.  The plan is to make it Open Source when the first release is ready, possibly under the AGPLv3 license. Granite combines aspects of the Open Source databases eXist-db and Facebook's RocksDB, along with lots of new stuff.

What's in it for you?

  1. You get to visit Malaysia and Singapore. Johor Bahru is right on the border.
  2. We will pay the expenses of:
    • Your return flights and transfers.
    • Your accomodation - we have a three bedroom apartment in a 4* luxury tower block on the beach. Myself and my partner will have one bedroom, and you are welcome to either of the other two bedrooms. The building has a pool, a gym, a restaurant, a bar, and direct access to the beach.
    • Your food - typically we cook meals at home, and we welcome you to eat with us. We are vegetraian, but we like good food! You are of course welcome to use the kitchen, etc. and cook for yourself.
    • We will try and arrange some small trips and meals out together, and we will cover the cost of these. At least one day trip to Singapore, and a nice evening meal out at a restaurant at least once a week. The extent of this is to be decided.
  3. Any other excursions you wish to make, or additional expenses you incur must be covered by yourself!
  4. You will not be paid! Again - THIS IS NOT EMPLOYMENT!

In terms of the open source coding and discussions, I hope that we could do this 4 days out of 7 each week. This gives you 3 days a week to relax on the beach, by the pool, go on your own excursions, or whatever you want to do. Of course, you can do more open source coding if you wish, but that is your choice.

What's in it for me?

I have been working in Open Source for about 14 years now. The majority of my contributions in that time have been to eXist-db. I am a believer in the Open Source development model and community. I am always trying to give something back to the communities that support me.

For Project Pebble, I would like to see a beautiful tool built in TypeScript upon Theia IDE, which we make Open Source and freely available to everyone. Unfortunately, as a developer my serious skillset is very much backend, Java, Scala, C++, etc. Sure, I could learn TypeScript and do it myself, but that would take time, and I have other ambitious things that I am trying to finish.

I am hoping for a working relationship where you can build the front-end, and I will act as the guy with the vision for the project, I can also build any additional APIs for the backend that are required to support your front-end. Maybe I can also learn some TypeScript and Theia stuff from you as we go!

Expectations and Small Print :-/

I dunno... just be a decent human being! You will be living with me, a 37 year old British male Software developer, and my partner a 40 year old American female.

We expect a culture of mutual respect, tolerance, and working together. We are both open minded and liberal. We have been traveling through Asia now for the last 6 months and visited India, Sri Lanka, The Maldives and now Malaysia. I guess I am doing the Digital Nomad thing!

We ask that you respect the laws and culture of Malaysia and Singapore when you visit, but let's make this clear, we are in no way responsible for your behaviour or actions.

This is not employment, so you might be fine with a tourist visa, or you might not need a visa, or maybe you do. Sorry, but I can't help or advise with visas or entry requirements etc, this has to be your responsibility. You have to be able to fly and travel freely, please don't apply if you think you will have problems with the authorities when you reach the border in Singapore or Malaysia, we can't help with that!

Still Interested?

Send me an email to adam DOT retter81 At GMAIL dot COM with the subject line "TypeScript Holiday". Please include your name, and anything that you think is relevant so that I can judge your experience and ambition for this project. Please also include your location and the name of your nearest international airport so that I can figure out transfer and flight costs etc. Also if you have any questions for me, or want to know more about the location, include those too.

There is an opportunity for you to extend your stay in Malaysia if you wish to travel more by yourself, but that is at your own expense! We will still cover your return flight home, and providing you let me know up front, you can choose the date of that.