Impact of Anime on my Programming Experience

It occurs to me that anime has been an important driver for improving my programming abilities.

For example:

• I did my own implementation of the Kisekae Set System (KiSS), a digital paper doll system which often featured anime characters.
  • My very first exposure to anime was to the characters of Wedding Peach, via an included doll file with the French KiSS viewer by John Stiles.
  • Taught me how to write directly to graphics buffers, in both C and later Java.
• I initially picked up Java when I was writing RealMediaFixer, a repairer of RealMedia video files. CodeWarrior’s implementation of the C++ iostream classes had a broken buffered stream implementation, so I switched to Java to use its rock solid BufferedOutputStream implementation.
  • Initial use was to repair Ranma episodes that I downloaded over HTTP, on dialup!
• I implemented my own client and server for the Hotline protocol, through which I got most of my anime prior to the introduction of BitTorrent.
• Today I am enhancing support for transcoding soft subtitles in HandBrake so that I can watch new anime on the bus.