front-end web development
Focus is now on the increasingly robust capabilities of web programming, with particular attention to:
- Responsive Design...Standard equipment these days, but still to varying degrees of responsiveness and accomplished in slightly different ways, depending upon the particular design and, of course, budget.
- Mobile First...A logical structure for responsive design, becoming a standard.
- Progressive Enhancement...Starting with design and code which works for the lowest common denominator (older browsers and limited capabilities) and then adding functionality for browsers/systems which can take advantage of it.
- Graceful Degradation...Starting with design and code which takes advantage of newer capabilities with workarounds to ensure that older browsers/systems will still display content satisfactorily. The end result is similar to that of Progressive Enhancement, but attacks the issues from the opposite direction. Both approaches are valid, and are frequently combined within a project for different components. Graceful Degradation is generally more cost-effective up front, but less cost-effective in the long run.
- Latest specification adherence...Ensuring a relatively long lifecycle, as well as providing security updates. This goes for all of the languages used for the application and, as possible, for the entire development stack.
The basic building block...
While there are preprocessors such as Sass and {less}, along with frameworks such as Bootstrap, each of which can save time in developing a site, my first preference is to code from scratch in most cases. That said, this site does include some Bootstrap of the Sass variety, which has been extensively modified to suit my design.
JavaScript is similar to ActionScript and Lingo, which I've written since 1995, and which are all derived from the same parent language. As JavaScript is more-or-less universally enabled (security afficionados notwithstanding), robust web applications can be scripted client-side. jQuery, the most popular JavaScript library, adds value as a timesaver.
While I first developed on a MAC for cross-platform delivery, I currently develop locally on a Windows machine, using IISExpress as a local server for testing, and also maintain a Linux/Apache VPS (virtual partition server) space for remote serving and testing.
SublimeText2 is my editor of choice.
Compass is used for compiling, with Scout as a simple Windows gui.
I also have limited experience with Microsoft Visual Studio.
I am not, at this time, a server-side developer, but I have had just a little exposure to Ruby on Rails and C#.NET development frameworks when making html and css changes to existing sites. I would enjoy working in a role in which I could learn more server-side development.