Martin on... Code

While completing my degree in Music Production I took very entry-level computer science course where we had to build a web page with pure HTML. It was a hideous single-page site with a florescent green background. This was back in the early 2000's so the web wasn't nearly as refined as it is today!

After that course, I continued to learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript which was the only way to get those cool image roll-over effects. That was enough to make a little extra cash building small web sites for folks.

Pretty soon customers were asking about dynamic sites with databases and e-commerce systems. I bought a book on PHP and MySQL and built a couple hand-crafted photo gallery systems. I also began setting up and customizing e-commerce sites built on open source platforms such as the once-famous osCommerce PHP/MySQL e-commerce platform.

Eventually, this part time work resulted in a full-time programming job doing ASP.NET and Sql Server programming. As I learned new technologies I took a deeper interest in the fundamental principles of quality software craftsmanship.

Today, I work on a large software team that is building a cloud-based software platform using micro-services written in Java, MongoDB object stores, message queues, AngularJS front-end, and a little bit of NodeJS.

Software development is interesting work, and I enjoy the daily challenge and the software culture that strives daily to do great work.