Hi, I’m Quil.

Sometimes I look like this.

I’m a programmer, artist, writer, and programming language designer from Brazil. I’ve been working on software professionally for about 8 years now. During that time I’ve helped build (and led the development of) user interfaces, web applications, programming languages, and developer tooling.

Outside of my daily job I’ve also worked on computer games and open-source software for things that mattered to me. The experiences of working with so many different people, all across the world, were really valuable to me.

People are still my biggest motivation. I want to work on more projects that will have a positive impact on their lives. I want to help build technology that will let people achieve their goals more efficiently. I even made my short bio “working to make computing more human-centric!”

My current personal project is an experimental research called Crochet. It draws inspirations from fields such as sociology, psychology, mathematics, and computer science. And aims to realise a very specific view of programming:

“We should be able to collaborate with computers in the same way we collaborate with humans.”

When people talk about collaboration, they generally mean helping humans get work done together. That’s a very good start. Crochet aims to extend that view of collaboration to include computing systems as well, through the use of two principles: rich interaction and feedback, and trust.

The IDE planned for Crochet is called Purr, and what’s equally important here is that Purr has a cute mascot.

Purr-tan and her adorable kittens, Caramel and Creampuff.

All The Languages!

I’m somewhat obsessed with languages. It’s quite amazing to me how languages both allow us to express things and constrain how we do so. The way language shapes and colours our thoughts. And, of course, all of the cultural and social elements that are inherent to “language”.

I speak both Portuguese and English. And I’m learning Japanese and Swedish. There’s a lot of fun to be had in reading the etymologies of words with an Indo-European root which you almost never get from Japanese.

In the future I’m hoping to study Italian, German, Finnish, and Korean. Unsurprisingly, my language-learning wants are pretty much driven by my hobbies and seeing interesting linguistic bits on the internet.

I quite enjoy thinking about programming and mathematical languages, too.

What pronouns to use?

I personally use neutral language, but you can use any pronouns to refer to me (especially given that this can be a big pain in very gendered languages, such as Latin-based ones). Just be respectful and consistent.

More trivia about me:

  • I really like cats. I could spend a long time watching them, and playing with them.

  • I like dogs and other animals as well, but I feel really uneasy near dogs in real life. There’s no rational explanation for that.

  • Precure and Aikatsu are my favourite series, despite being shows for children. It’s great to be able to enjoy something straightforward like that and forget your worries.

  • If you follow me on Twitter you know that I spend way too much time talking about Japanese idols. Perhaps too much money too…

  • I’ve been addicted to phone rhythm games for a couple of years and my wallet hates it.

  • Quil is pronounced as the English letter “Q”. Or /kju:/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Or キュー in a Japanese phonetic rendering.