Coding... ['hip','hip']

Coding and I

I cannot really say when was the first time I started programming. I remember as an 8-year old I was rewriting game code from Bastek magazine into the console of the Atari station. Does that count? I have built a first HTML website on a local server in 1998 and then it was down the hill from there.

I have done development using JSP, PHP and Coldfusion, and over time I have learned the best practices to webdesign and web programming. I must say that I try my best to follow what I have learned, but sometimes, depending on the client, it is not always possible and I end up doing something that may stray away from what one would call perfect code. What can I say, client knows best...

Coding and Web Development using HTML5 and CSS3

I need to be honest that due to many of the browsers out there not supporting HTML5, I did not instantly jump on the HTML5 wagon. Yes, it is pretty, and yes it is useful, but if my clients cannot reap the benefits because they are using Internet Explorer 7, then why bother? But as soon as I started using it, I fell in love instantly. The code is much cleaner, the option pallet is much larger and overall client experience satisfaction has grown exponentially. After all, who am I to tell my clients not to use sound effects for their website? Yes I do dislike embedding Flash components into HTML websites, but now that I can avoid that in HTML5 by using audio tags, coding has become a little more satisfying.

Coding and Web Development using PHP

I must say that PHP has always been my preferred back-end programming language. It has so many libraries that can be easily utilized to create clean and well developed code that it blows other programming languages out of the water. If any of my clients are ever interested with a third party tool of some sort, I can always depend on PHP support. It is an object oriented language which comes useful for large projects, but doesn't necessarily make difference for small websites. I would still recommend PHP to anyone for all of the above reasons and also the fact that most, if not all, web hosts allow linux hosting, and can support PHP, which can't be said about many other back-end development languages.

Coding and Web Development using ColdFusion

I love ColdFusion for many reasons. Over the years that I got to code in ColdFusion I fell in love with the code structure. What can I say, HTML and ColdFusion code look like they belong together when intermixed on a CFM page. Same cannot be said about other languages. If the code is well written and well documented, it is very clean and can be easily read and modified. To top it all off, ColdFusion tags allow for simple implementation of elements with minimal code writing. Whether you need to write a simple query, convert image to grayscale or add a Google Map to the website, it's just a matter of one line of code. Now, if you want to customize these elements, that's another story.

Coding and Web Development using JavaScript (jQuery)

Over the past couple of years development of websites has heavily shifted towards JavaScript implementation. jQuery is now a part of pretty much every modern website. Of course you can still develop without it. CSS3 has now options to allow animation and static pages don't really need it, but as soon as you want to add any "feature" to your website, I can list multiple reasons why jQuery is probably the way to go. From built in elements and Ajax calls to hundreds of useful extensions, you really cannot go wrong with jQuery. Other libraries include prototype and mootools, but I have noticed that over the years, more developers are moving away from these libraries. jQuery is definitely becoming the most popular option for any and all of your JavaScript needs.