John Root
Principal Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Redmond, Washington, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolJohn Root is a Principal Software Development Engineer with 18 years of experience building and automating macOS and iOS tooling for Microsoft’s Office engineering teams in Redmond. He brings deep systems and cross-platform expertise in C#, C++, Objective-C, Cocoa, .NET and build automation, with a long track record of stabilizing complex toolchains and packaging workflows. As a pragmatic back-end and build engineer, he has contributed fixes to high-profile open-source projects such as CPython, SDL and the MacPorts ecosystem, often restoring compatibility with older macOS toolchains and arm64 architectures. His work spans test automation, archive and dependency handling, and mobile platform build compatibility, and he’s repeatedly solved thorny cross-compiler and SDK issues that surface only in large, heterogeneous codebases. Formerly a consultant and publishing systems owner, he pairs hands-on engineering with systems thinking and practical process improvements. Colleagues rely on him for durable, low-friction solutions that keep large release pipelines running smoothly.
18 years of coding experience
20 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science (BS) Environmental Science & Resource Management, Bachelor of Science (BS) Environmental Science & Resource Management at Lehigh UniversityAntioch University Seattle
Github Skills (27)
objective-c10
ios10
python10
package-management10
scripting10
sdl10
build-system10
c1110
c1710
xcode10
script10
sh10
macos10
software-packaging10
shell10
Programming languages (13)
Github contributions (5)
macports/macports-base
Mar 2008 - Jan 2023
The MacPorts command-line client
Role in this project:
Backend Developer & Automation Engineer
Backend Developer & Automation EngineerContributions:44 releases, 50 reviews, 2287 commits in 15 years
Contributions summary:John focused on improving the MacPorts base client. Their work included implementing and fixing functionality related to packaging, archive management, and dependency resolution. They also made contributions to shell script utilities and documentation. Additionally, they worked on expanding functionality related to the software packaging system, particularly improving how software archives are handled and processed.
macosxpackage-managermacportscommand-linemacos
macports/macports-ports
Feb 2008 - Jan 2023
The MacPorts ports tree
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:301 reviews, 11393 commits, 253 PRs in 15 years 1 month
Contributions summary:John primarily contributed to the MacPorts ports tree, fixing build issues and updating packages. They addressed build failures on older systems and arm64 architectures by modifying code, including the implementation of `getline` for older macOS versions. The user also updated several packages, such as libarchive, csound, and py-sphinx, to their latest versions, ensuring compatibility and addressing identified bugs.
macosxpackage-managermacports-portsportsmacports
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