Mariano has been programming since the early age of 11. He quickly became proficient with C and C++, producing his first commercial applications at 15 years of age. He then continued to learn several other programming languages, PHP being one of them. He has contributed to several open source projects, becoming part of the core development team of both CakePHP and Lithium, two of the best PHP frameworks. He currently divides his time between open source programming, his commercial work, his hobbies, and spending time with his family.