I started my computer career in 1986 when my supervisor gave me the only computer in the department and said “Do something with it!”. I obtained a copy of dBaseII and began programming.

Things have changed a lot since then.

Early 1999 I taught myself HTML and PERL. With the addition of MySql I built a Christian website, which is no longer in existence, ChristianExchange.org

I have since replaced PERL with PHP.

My Skills

* Linux is a Unix like operating system that is robust and ideal for web hosting. The PHP programming language is native to Linux.

* PHP is a very popular Internet programming language used to build interactive websites. It has been estimated that PHP is in use on over 2 million websites.

When I use the phrase interactive website I am talking about websites that collect information such as through a contact form or registration form and / or provide information based on user input.

* MySql is a Database Management System (DBMS). A Database allows for the storage and retrieval of information. MySql is the defacto standard on the Internet.

* HTML is short for HyperText Markup Language. It is the base code that most websites are made of.

* Cascading Style Sheets or CSS is a grouping of website styling directives. In other words what font is used, if it is bolded, ETC

* JavaScript programming language is a programming language that is used to control your web browser.

* AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. AJAX functionality is created through the use of the JavaScript programming language. AJAX is a way to update a web page without refreshing the entire page. Most websites are built in a way that require the entire web page be refreshed to update even the tiniest part of a web page.

* Search Engine Optimization is used to increased traffic from the search engines.

Development Environment

A development server can be local or remote.  I utilize both.

Locally, I configured older laptop configured with and i3 CPU, 4BR RAM, and a Solid State Device for the hard drive.  On this laptop I run Ubuntu Linux, PHP 7, MySql, and the Apache web server.  This is more than adequate for testing Drupal 8, Magento 2, WordPress, and WooCommerce.

I can also do my programming remotely by running a local copy of PHPStorm (PHP code editor) local to edit PHP source code files on a remote development server.

If need be I can create a site for testing on my Virtial Private Server (VPS) that is state of the art and runs Plesk.

I have several computers running Windows that are used to view my development work in Internet Explorer (IE), FireFox, and Chrome to ensure all is rendering properly.