Shawn Flisakowski

Experience

May 2013 to Present: Working on iWork (Numbers).

Working on formulas, rewriting, and the calculation engine. Handled formula rewriting for transpose and collaboration.

Patents:

• Reference representation and transformation in collaborative documents : 9684646.

• Search, performing queries, applying search filters.
• Low-level database infrastructure.
• Library physical layout and schema design.
• Keywords.
• Places.

Patents:

• Synchronization of Database Changes among Multiple Devices : 8255360.
• Managing Digital Content in Hierarchies : 8694985.

I worked on the data-engine layer underlying all of the 7.0 thru 8.5 products. Specific areas I worked on include [for all items listed, I worked on internals only - not the graphics]:

FileMaker 8.5 (released July 2006)

• GetLayoutObjectAttribute and List functions.
• Parsing URL calculations for the Web Viewer Setup to split them up into their components.

FileMaker 8.0 (released August 2005)

• Date/Time/Timestamp search patterns - allows searches that leave components of a date or time wild.
• Day-of-Week searches - allow for Mon..Fri searches.
• Value Lists - added support for subsets, to support new type-ahead feature.
• Variables - made the necessary changes to the calculation engine to support setting and retrieving the new script local and global variables.
• Performance enhancements to low-level disk access code to increase the amount of parallelism obtained.

FileMaker 7.0 (released March 2004)

• Execution of queries for Find Mode: local finds as well as distributed finds across multiple hosts.
• Execution of Joins
• Multi-Predicate Joins
• Assisted in the design and implementation of the new graph-based relational model.
• SQL Parser: For a subset of SQL-92, including nested subqueries and left outer joins (for testing only - not in the product).
• SQL Executor: Built on top of the standard FM data-access layer (used by the xDBC interface).
• Calculation Engine: Initial redesign, implemented local variables and short-circuiting operations.
• Custom Functions: Supporting recursion and optimizing tail-recursion.
• Field Dependencies: Initial redesign using semi-naive evaluation.
• Arbitrary-precision Fixed-Point Math: Gives 10^400 down to 10^-400 range, with adjustable precision.
• Value Lists
• Summaries (ported)
• Sparse bitmap implementation for efficient storage of lists of rowids.
• Lock Manager
• Notifications: Machine-to-machine messaging
• Security: Involved with the design and implementation of several new security features.
• Disk Access Method and a Disk Cache: Implemented a hierarchical store.
• File-Mirroring: used for the Live Backup feature
• File-Optimization
• File-Compaction
• High-level platform-neutral threading support classes and thread-to-thread messaging.

• Cascade Feature for Creating Records in a Database : 20060136465. (Also mentioned on MacNews site).

SecureSoft is a startup in silicon valley doing some security-related software. My work there was to design and implement a deductive database, basically a simplified (and therefore more efficient) version of Coral.

Worked on the XPS query optimizer. I implemented an algorithm to efficiently divide the system's available memory between the various iterator nodes in a query.

Education

I graduated from UW-Madison in January 1997, where I obtained my Master's degree in Computer Science while working full-time as a research assistant in the database group.

The projects I participated in during that time:

• The DEVise project, a package for examining large quantities of data in a visual fashion. I wrote a new schema parser and data reader for it, called UniData.
• The Coral project, which I maintained. Coral is a deductive (logic-based) database system similar to Prolog.
• I cleaned-up/rewrote sections of Minibase. Minibase is a simple database intended for instructional use in mid-level database classes. The release includes homework assignments which have the students rewriting a component of it at a time. I also added Microbase to the release, a stripped down version of Minibase that interested students can examine to gain insight into the big picture. As a learning tool, it is best combined with a quality book on database theory and practice, such as Database Management Systems by Raghu Ramakrishnan.

Mail me at: flisakow at spf-15.com

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