The technology of the web and the numerous ways information is communicated is changing constantly, which means it’s important to keep abreast of developments in order to maintain good practice and a professional viewpoint.
We were incredibly impressed with Colin’s knowledge in a continuously evolving market place.Graeme Merifield, Managing Director, Tribe Festivals Ltd
Half of my working life is spent on research and learning, something I expect is true of most practitioners in the web and software industry, but I believe it is time well spent, as it helps inform the benefits I aim to bring to a client’s project.
I have been building web-based software since 2002 and my work is driven by the mantra: keep it simple, but make it elegant.
I continue to be inspired by prescribed engineering best practices and my aim always is to produce software which is clean, modular, extensible and stable. I care about the finer details.
Interested to learn how I might assist with your project? Get in touch
My guiding principles, practices and tools
- Website/Web app development:
- Content and users first
- Web standards compliance
- Accessibility guidelines and best practice WAI and WCAG
- Responsive Web Design (RWD)
- Progressive enhancement
- Performance optimisation
- Software development:
- Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY)
- Law of Demeter
- Design by Contract
- Design patterns
- Object Oriented Programming (OOP)
- Test-driven development (TDD)
- My knowledge stack includes:
- Golang, PHP, Python, Node.js
- HTML, XML, SVG
- CSS, SASS
- JavaScript (ES5, ES6 and beyond)
- Web Components
- MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
- REST, GraphQL, JWT
- JSON, YAML
- Mustache, Handlebars
- Tinkering currently with:
- Kubernetes, MiniKube
- Elixir, Elm
- Tools I use regularly:
- Git, Github
- Docker
- Bash, npm, Parcel, Rollup, webpack, Grunt
- Babel, Cypress, AVA, Jasmine, Karma
- VS Code, Vi
- Photoshop, Illustrator
- ssh, rsync
- Used in the past/Very familiar with:
- Subversion
- JQuery, Prototype
- Actionscript
- Reference materials on my bookshelf include:
- Clean Code
- The Pragmatic Programmer
- Practices of an Agile Programmer
- JavaScript: The Good Parts
- HTTP Developer’s Handbook (dusted this one off recently, still a very useful reference)
- Resources available online that I have found to be invaluable:
- I listen to many Podcasts and would recommend the following: