Select anchorAbout me

Heya o/

I’m xq (or Felix, if you prefer the name on the passport), a computer enthusiast from Stuttgart, Germany.

As computer enthusiast is a pretty broad term, I guess I have to clarify that a bit. First of all, I am fascinated by computer technology per se (circuitry, silicone farbrication, cpus, memory, …), how we use computers in society and technology and how software can change the world by modifying the behaviour of devices. I like demos, embedded systems, game development and also playing video games.

Select anchorEarly days

I started with computers roughly around 2000 by playing the wonderful Pettson & Findus games on Windows NT, and, at one point, got my first PC. It had Windows XP and some games I bought. During elementary school, I made a card game similar to the Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokémon card games with friends at school, as my parents didn’t want to buy me those cards.

In 5th grade, after switching to high school, I wanted to make a pc game, just like the ones I loved playing. So my dad, a software developer, gave me a C# book, C# Builder and left me to myself. Since then, my interest in playing games decreased, and the development portion got bigger. I also started tinkering with a nice robot kit, and learned to code C.

I never stopped experimenting with computers, and today I am mostly in the lowlevel sector, both when it comes to graphics programming, embedded devices or other interesting things like network stacks or compilers.

Select anchorProgressing

During high school and uni I improved my coding skills and experience more and more, trying to create a lot of different projects and programs.

I made multiplayer shooters, financial trading software, wrote my own small operating system, developed, but never finished my own programming language and so on.

After moving to Stuttgart, I also quickly joined shackspace, the Stuttgart hackerspace. There, I found a place to finally be a nerd like the others, and not be an outcast anymore. My social life grew with shackspace and uni, and I’m happy that I found my place.

Some years later, I visited the Under Construction demo party, and found a second home. Since them, I’m also semi-active in the demoscene and now I’m regularly found at demoparties.

Select anchorWhere I am now

Some years ago, I started playing around with more programming languages, as Rust and Nim appeared on the surface of the internet. And at some point, I found Zig. The language and I were a perfect match, and since then I basically stopped coding in any other language, except for occasional C# or Lua projects.

Together with some other people, I founded the Zig Embedded Group, a small, but steadily growing group of people that explore and improve the state of Zig on embedded platforms. You might want to check out MicroZig!

I also created my own cross-platform graphics framework zero-graphics, which is focused more on portability and wide platform support than high performance graphics.

Select anchorNon-digital live

Outside the digital work, I live together with a wonderful woman, enjoy ballroom dancing and meet my friends. I also enjoy cooking and experimenting in the kitchen, which often results in unhealthy, but very tasty meals.