TONY SMITH, TECH WORK, 2014-PRESENT

Contracting Technical Writer and Software Engineer

January 2025 through to the present

I am currently contracting as technical writer and software engineer. This work is currently confidential but I can say it has centred on the integration and extension of the use of BLE communications in shipping IoT products, and its documentation.

Founder and Principal, Black Pyramid Software

September 2008 through to the present

This is the umbrella organization for all of my commercial and non-commercial open source products and projects. The key ones are listed below.

These efforts to date have focused on macOS and iOS using Swift, plus Swift UI or AppKit/UIKit in the case of GUI applications, developed in Xcode and released (for commercial items) through the Mac and iOS App Stores.

Other endeavours include C++ templates for FreeRTOS running on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, and Python drivers for Holtek HT16K33-based LED display products.

iOS App Store
- Fontismo — install any of 90 curated free fonts onto your iPhone or iPad
macOS App Store
- PreviewMarkdown — QuickLook previews and Finder thumbnails of Markdown documents
- PreviewCode — QuickLook previews and Finder thumbnails of dozens of programming languages and configuration file formats
- PreviewYAML — QuickLook previews and Finder thumbnails of YAML files
- PreviewJson — QuickLook previews and Finder thumbnails of JSON files
- PreviewText — QuickLook previews and Finder thumbnails of text documents
Open Source macOS Utilities
- MNU — Menu bar based launcher for applications and command line tools
- imageprep — Convenient image manipulation at the command line
- pdfmaker — Convert images to PDF, or PDF files to images
- HightlighterSwift — Integrate popular code highlighting utility Highlight.js into your Swift app
Open source macOS Libraries
- BuildAPIAccess — Objective-C wrapper for the the Electric Imp REST API
Open Source other
- HT16K33-Python — Drivers for displays based on the Holtek HT16K33 controller
- Depot — A USB-hosted multi-bus adaptor for Macs and Linux machines. Based on the RP2040
- RP2040 FreeRTOS — FreeRTOS templates for RP2040-based projects

One of my Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040) projects was featured in Raspberry Pi’s Maker magazine:

Maker magazine

Senior Software Engineer, KORE Wireless

June 2023 through August 2024

Note The Microvisor product was shut down in August 2024. Certain components, including the CLI tooling, were never released in a publicly accessible form. You can view the documentation I produced for the project here.

I joined KORE following its acquisition of Twilio‘s IoT and Wireless Business Unit. During this time I focused on the following projects:

Microvisor
- Wrote developer-oriented Microvisor CLI tooling using Go in Linux, Mac and Windows native forms, supported by unit tests. The CLI:
  - Interacts with the Microvisor Cloud via REST API for application uploading, trasnfer of assets to the cloud, deployment to devices and log retrieval.
  - Leverages protocol buffers for data serialization during application upload, remote debugging sessions and log streaming.
  - Operates locally to package and sign compiled C/C++ application firmware prior to upload and deployment.
  - Communicates with development hardware over USB for device WiFi provisioning and identity information retrieval.
- Co-engineered application firmware for a Microvisor-based battery powered asset tracker product, including GNSS support, sensor support, and FreeRTOS and LittleFS integration. The application was written in C and C++.
- Continued to manage, maintain and extend the Microvisor developer documentation and sample code.
Super SIM
- Oversaw the migration of Twilio’s IoT product documentation to KORE Wireless:
Electric Imp
- Continued to maintain the Electric Imp Platform developer documentation.
- Continued to lead contractors maintaining the Electric Imp iOS and Android developer apps and SDKs.

Developer Educator, Twilio

January 2020 through May 2023

Note Documentation written for Twilio’s former IoT SIM products has now been migrated to KORE Wireless and removed from Twilio’s website. I am preserving a selection of the material produced.

Twilio — specifically its IoT and Wireless Business Unit — acquired Electric Imp in December 2019. During my time with Twilio:

I was the sole Technical Writer for Microvisor, Twilio’s first own-brand IoT platform. I worked closely with the engineering team to produce documentation and sample applications (C and C++). Additionally I:
- Produced Microvisor System Call documentation (generated manually) such as factory process management calls and notification management calls.
- Contributed a Microvisor post to the FreeRTOS Blog:
Initiated a program to revitalize and restructure the developer documentation for the business unit to evolve the presentation and information architecture:
- Organize content around core products — Super SIM, Microvisor and Programmable Wireless — with a consistent hierarchy of content type under each of them.
- Introduced textual, photographic, diagrammatic and screenshot consistency, with guidance for its ongoing application.
- Rewrote all Super SIM getting started guides to use up-to-date platforms.
- Deprecated and later removed guides for EOL products and no-longer-available demo kit.
Created new content:
- Expanded developer guidance material.
- Added introductory guides to cellular modem AT commands and the command line.
- Added new technical guides to cellular signal strength and cellular connectivity optimisation.
- Built out the business unit’s cellular module knowledgebase.
- Provided content (and performed testing work) for the Works With Super SIM programme.
- Created full documentation for the first version of Twilio’s (now defunct) Programmable Asset Tracker (documentation no longer available).
Produced and distributed quarterly readership statistics and trends guidance to Business Unit senior leadership.
I rebooted and revised the internal Twilio cross-product end-user documentation style guide.
Produced the internal Twilio Documentation Writers’ Guide and Twilio Style Guide for Error Code Documentation.
Worked closely with other Developer Educators (each focused on different Twilio products) and Technical Writers to provide document architecture guidance and assistance on producing new material and updating existing documentation.
Worked with a CMS system (Wagtail) and later docs-as-code workflow with GitBooks.

Senior Tech Writer and Project Manager, Electric Imp

March 2014 through December 2019

During this period I was sole documentation architect and technical writer for all external-facing developer-oriented content, including documentation and sample code (Squirrel, Node.js/JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Swift/Objective-C).

I also led third-party developers working on customer-centric iOS and Android SDKs and app store available mobile apps (iOS, Android).

Whilst at Electric Imp, I:

Completely revamped and extended Electric Imp’s developer documentation to:
- Oversee a major site re-engineering process to migrate from the Jekyll static site engine to a Drupal CMS-based site.
- Architect the site around key constituencies: software developer, hardware designer and production manager:
- Added major new content not related to new Imp functionality:
  - A full language reference and a programming guide (Squirrel).
  - Application notes
  - Developer Guides:
- Maintained impOS Release Notes
- Rewrote and extended the embedded API reference material
- Extended the hardware design documentation, getting started and setup guides as new hardware modules were introduced over time.
- Created product manufacturing quick starts and full process guides.
- Added a series of support articles for first-line customer support.
- Contributed support guidance to the Electric Imp community forum and this became the basis for many support articles.
Contributed hardware drivers and third-party web service integrations (Squirrel) and CLI tool development (JavaScript/Node):
- Drivers
- Integrations
  - What Three Words
  - Dark Sky
Independently produced Electric Imp apps and libraries.

1989-2013