Gerald Chang

Gerald Chang

Software engineer in Melbourne. Making useful things and exploring life.

A few things from my world.

My collection.

CreativeNotch

My brother wanted a personalised notch. I started building one, and now use it throughout my own work.

Explore the case studyCreativeNotch with music controls and the file shelf.

Out and about.

Golf, a street walk, brunch, the gym or a music festival. I'm usually down for a spontaneous plan.

A little more about meAt the driving range after dark.

Food and friends.

Exploring good food, finding somewhere for brunch and catching up over dinner with friends.

Send me a food recommendation

Work, food and the parts of life in between.
Meet the person behind it

Gerald outdoors.About me.

I'm Gerald. Pretty chill, curious about new things and usually up for a spontaneous plan.

I'm a software engineer in Melbourne. I like spotting everyday problems that software could solve a little better. Side projects are how I explore those ideas, try a prototype and learn as I go.

A good day might include the gym, a street walk and brunch, dinner with friends or a music festival. Lately there have been a lot of movie nights too.

More about me, my experience and skills

Lately.

Building
CreativeNotch, a little companion for my everyday work.
Exploring
Image and asset generation, and building software with AI while keeping good engineering habits.
Enjoying
Good food, new places and the parts of life in between.
A shared table of oysters, cheese, chips, a burger and drinks.
Good food and good company.

Movies for 2026.

A few favourites from what I've watched this year.

  • Project Hail Mary theatrical poster.

    Project Hail Mary

  • Resident Evil 2026 poster, showing a car and its elongated shadow on a forest road.

    Resident Evil

  • Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey poster, with a warrior and the Trojan horse.

    Odyssey

Selected work.

All projects
Gerald working at his desk with a laptop and two monitors.

At work I'm a full-stack software engineer at Enroute Tech, building software for vehicle fleets and workshops across PHP services, Vue web apps and two Flutter mobile apps.

Side projects are where I explore everyday problems, try a prototype and learn as I go. These case studies share the problems, decisions and results behind what I'm building.

My experience and skills

  • CreativeNotch

    Turns the MacBook notch into something useful, without the battery drain.

    Swift, SwiftUI, macOS 26+

    Watch the launch film

  • pr-decision-log

    Attaches a redacted record of what an AI coding agent actually ran to the pull request it opened.

    TypeScript, Node.js, Claude Code hooks, GitHub CLI

  • system-design-skill

    A skill that makes an AI agent ask questions, do the math and plan for failure before it designs a new system.

    Markdown, Agent Skills, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex

Writing.

All writing

  • I measured my agent sessions before building the tool

    pr-decision-log was meant to capture an AI agent's reasoning. Counting what my own sessions actually held changed what it captures, twice, and then it dropped the reasoning altogether.

  • Why CreativeNotch doesn't poll

    The one rule I wrote before building anything, the single place I had to break it, and what sticking to it actually bought me.

Say hello.

A good idea, something you're making or a good place to eat. I'd love to hear about it.

dezhengchang@gmail.com

Board game picks.

Two recommendations for the next game night.

Exploding Kittens Original Edition box.

Exploding Kittens

A little evil and a lot of fun with friends.

CATAN board and game pieces in the publisher's render.

Catan

A good excuse to gather around the table and get a little competitive.

Artwork and credits

Personal photographs supplied by Gerald. CreativeNotch screenshot supplied by Gerald. Archivo is distributed under the SIL Open Font License.

CATAN official board render
Exploding Kittens official box artwork
Project Hail Mary poster. Copyright Amazon MGM Studios.
Resident Evil 2026 poster from Sony Pictures.
The Odyssey 2026 poster from Universal Pictures.

Film and game artwork belongs to the credited publishers.