About
About Regex Hero
Regex Hero is an .NET regular expression tester. It is one of the few tools that runs directly off of the .NET Regex Class library. As such, the regular expressions you design in Regex Hero will behave the same way in your .NET application. I wrote Regex Hero in April, 2009. Since then it has become a tool that developers all over the world depend on.
As a user of Regex Hero myself, I tend to find little things to improve every day. But I'd also like to hear your thoughts.
About Me and BucketSoft
My name is Steve Wortham. I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. And I've been coding since I was 12 years old. Back then my interests lay mostly in writing computer games and anything involving animation.
I was always hungry to learn how to get the most performance out of my programs and make them look as spectactular as possible. My passion for computer graphics motivated me to become a better programmer until I eventually progressed into OpenGL programming.
That's when I started www.gldomain.com and began giving away everything I wrote.
In 2001, when I turned 18 I went a different direction and landed my first job as the website guy for Combus Technology. I say "website guy" because my role at the company was a little uncertain at first. Essentially, I was their first web designer, until I learned ASP and SQL from a contractor as we worked on our first major website project and I became a developer. We built a complete e-commerce site with a shopping cart and a faceted search engine. In those first couple years I learned an enormous amount and loved it. Immediately following that project I went on to create a Google Analytics-like traffic tracking system and some helpdesk software, both for internal use. Then in 2003 we built a menu ordering system for CiCi's Pizza. It allowed store managers at the 400+ CiCi's locations to design the proof and order customized menus online. It was something they had been told was impossible, but we did it with a little Flash. That was fun.
Unfortunately, Combus hit a dry spell in 2004 and dissolved into nothingness. And on paper my resume didn't look too impressive at 21 years old with only 3 years of professional experience. And too many of the projects I had worked on were for internal use and I couldn't properly show them off. But after a little persistence/begging I joined another consulting company called IWC Solutions where I worked on a plethora of sites in a very short amount of time. My boss nicknamed me "the juggler" for my ability to handle so many projects simultaneously. Through IWC I began working for TechInsurance (who would eventually hire me full-time). At TechInsurance I was responsible for TechInsurance.com, BusinessInsuranceNow.com, and ContractEdge.com. It was a lot of work and a lot of responsibility. But the experience was invaluable in preparing me for what would come next.
Needless to say, I like what I do. I feel like I've lucked out by working for such great small companies. However, I realized pretty early on that I wanted to create my own software company some day. Towards the beginning of my career I simply felt like I lacked the experience to do this right. But after everything I've learned both in programming and in business, I founded BucketSoft, LLC in March 2009 as a means to create and sell software that I see a need for on a daily basis. And in September 2010 I began working for BucketSoft full-time. Working for myself gives me the flexibility to set my own schedule and pursue the kinds of projects I'm interested in. The company is still in its infancy stages and I have a ways to go, but I can proudly say that I'm living my dream.