I love the terminology and language associated with web development.
Hit us with a cross section of your software weapons of choice.
Hmm…. well basically I could not work without my copy of Dreamweaver. I have many different versions but not CS4 yet. Generally the end result is much the same sort of thing though. Just the application opens up more development routes. Other essential applications are WSFTP-PRO (Dont upload without it), UltraEdit (Excellent coding text editor ~ although I do use good old notepad a great deal). PHP, Mysql, Jvascript and that type of code is pretty much all developed in the text editor as far as I am concerned. I also use Flash on occasions, Photoshop, although I often prefer the old JASC Paint Shop Pro, it’s great for quick graphics work when the main consideration for online usage is to have quick loading etc.
Ecommerce is a big part of what I tend to be involved in, generally people like the flexible nature of opensource code.
Personally i like Oscommerce as I have become used to a lot of it’s quirks and coded hundreds of custom bits of functionality for various installations. CMS/BLOG wise I guess Wordpress is a good well know platform, you cant go too far wrong when there is such a strong community around a piece of opensource development. Joomla I am not a great fan of, mainly because it seems to have problems using PHP directly inside the output pages, without installing a plugin to allow the functionality, even then it’s a bit patchy on occasions. The thing about the net is that what is relevant one month, can turn around the next.
In general terms though the core applications I use are pretty much covered above.
If one of them suddenly disappeared from use, which one would cause the greatest havoc to your workflow?
Almost certainly Dreamweaver ~ it would mean installing an alternative WYSIWYG development platform. Sure I could do it all via a text editor, but that is no help when you are ‘designing’ as apposed to ‘coding’.
Let’s have your computer spec too.
To be completely honest this main machine is an old P4 I built about 6 years ago, although I do have my Dual Core on the other side of the room, running Vista etc.
A laptop, various other handhelds like Archos, PSP etc. people assume that you have to have cutting edge spec machines, but that is not strictly true, it depends entirely on what you are doing. If it can run Dreamweaver, a text editor, an FTP client, and some sort of graphics application, then you can pretty much get the work done.
How do you archive everything? After all you can’t necessarily rely on the client do do their own backing-up.
Well…the servers I run have backups done automatically, so that’s one source.
I have everything backed-up on my main computer. I also burn a lot to DVD, and also send it to an external drive as well. That covers virtually all requirements.
Plus the client has some responsibility with things like ecommerce online orders etc.
ie: their info has to be available to their accountant, so it’s a given they should be keeping a sales record etc. emails, database output, or Excel spreadsheets and the like.
Somebody working on the web all day must need a red-hot, rock-steady broadband connection.
What sort of speeds are you getting - no, REALLY getting - and who’s your provider of choice?
Again, thats a bit of a myth.. it would be true if I was uploading/downloading vast amounts of data everyday,
but generally it goes in waves. I actually use Tiscali and the connection is about 2meg reality ~ however thats
not the real issue for me. It’s the Upload speed that makes all the difference.
I have yet to find an ISP that offers a really good upload speed at a good price.
Have you done anything to your router/cable modem to ramp up its performance?
Air filters, injection kit…?
Actually no… although having said that, just today, I have been editing the configuration on my wireless router.
WPA2-PSK edits to get better connectivity from a few handheld devices. It took about a month to get some coherent responses from the manufacturers about relevant ports to open and other settings. Finally fixed that now so that’s good.
The main working machine has a direct modem feed straight into the line, no wireless aspect to it.
That is a lot more secure then broadcasting my presence around the block ~ that is why i have two modems.
Get geeky on us. Tell us how you start a site from scratch.
Hmmm… well it’s a lot easier these days with many of the instant build applications etc. they have a tendancy to fill the code elements full of tat and overkill styling though.
Usually I will create a template page with the relevant code core. Then i look at what bits might be modular, like navigation, headers and footers. Classic mistake I have seen and encountered when helping with some old websites, the original coders will have a navigation element on every page, rather than included it as a single file. Imagine if you wanted to add another item in the navigation menu, you are faced with a bunch of edits that equal the number of pages, same with not using css styles. Changing a font becomes a lengthy process if you have to edit every page. This is true for old style flat html sites.
Not too much of an issue with anything dynamic.
So, usually the intial starting phase of a site is about planning it’s structure and base platform.
If you could buy any system, and money was no object, what would it be?
We’re talking software AND hardware - an unlimited budget and all day in the shop with a huge trolley.
I dont have a dream system i could go and buy as yet, but i have been waiting around for several developments in tech:
Fabric TV/Monitor screens ~ highjacked by the military in the first wave for obvious reasons.
Neural network connections ~ it’s on the way and the speed improvement would be excellent.
I also like the fact that the scale of things can be reduced but the power increased.
Quantum processors would be a good example.
Are all web developers secretly robots?
Yes… I once had to tell a client to think of explaining it to a machine.
I didnt understand their ‘english’ description of what they wanted the website to do 
And finally…please tell us how Facebook works! All those people…all that info…!
It actually works?! 
They have become a target of late for a whole range of hack attempts I hear. I dont actually use it myself, but in basic terms it’s a front cover to a huge database load balanced and spread over a server network. It’s a neat concept and a great networking and communications tool. Users create their own little profiles that get stored onto the core database and as long as they remember that nothing online is ever Truly secure they are all set to make some new friends etc.
Thanks Mark!
Mark’s website is http://www.adyx2000.co.uk/ |
