A Github portfolio

In many professions, having a portfolio is a really good way of letting your work speak for yourself. A portfolio of your past work can help a potential employer decide whether they are going to hire you, and colleagues see what you're made of, and it often much more useful than a CV. Programmers can have portfolios too, in the form of public repositories, which is why I'm starting my own using Github.

Now, having a bunch of projects is not enough. I believe you need proper descriptions (readme files) and at the very least some readable installation instructions for each project. It so happens that Github supports a variety of formats for readme files, so I decided to use markdown, which makes the file look good with a simple text editor, and look better when parsed to HTML. Take a look at any of the projects, they should all have proper readme files, which are displayed by Github right below the file list. Which is cool.

A big issue is which projects to include. You don't want to flood the thing with dozens of similar projects, but instead show off all of your skills as efficiently as possible. So far this is the list I'm planning to include (I'll be adding them in the next days).

• CModel: based on Zend Framework (which uses PHP), a collection of tools for implementing a basic model.
• Sonic escribe: ("Sonic writes", in Spanish) a game made with Director that makes you practice typing.
• Backgammon for Android: made in Java, an implementation of the classic Backgammon game.
• Contacts, an old project from 2007 made in VB.NET.
• probably others I haven't thought of yet..

As you can see, I've chosen projects that use completely different technologies, although I'm infinitely more familiar with PHP than other languages. The reason for this is that I really don't (and shouldn't) care about which technology I'm using, because in 5 years they will all probably disappear or at least change drastically. What's important is to have the ability to pick up any new language and do stuff with it. There is a bunch of programming languages out there, and it would be frustrating and boring to work with just one of them.

So, this is my ongoing project these days. Github provides an excellent place to build a great looking, no-BS portfolio. I wonder if there are better alternatives.