Daniel D'Agostino - Experience

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Web Design

Web Design is what gave me a start with computers. I began learning HTML in June 2002, and that's what got me interested in computers. One thing followed another and soon I learned CSS, PHP, XHTML, and several other languages. I never used a program that does all the work for you (e.g. Microsoft FrontPage, or Macromedia Dreamweaver). Learning how to code things yourself gives you far more power, as well as a number of advantages, including: custom-made scripts and styles, logical design, structured presentation of information, and even a WAP site to be read by mobile phones. Using a so-called WYSIWYG editor doesn't only mean you can forget all this; many of them are known to generate anti-standard code, and are usually only compatible with Internet Explorer. There are many other browsers out there, you know.

Web Languages I Know

HTML (since 9th June 2002) - this language is the basic language used to create webpages and structure text into a real HTML document.
XHTML - this just takes HTML to new heights, is stricter and promotes more use of logical page layout and such good values.
CSS (since 20th July 2002) - the language used to add display, layout and beauty to the HTML core skeleton structure.
PHP (since January 2003) - a powerful scripting language enabling me to write scripts like guestbooks, forums, etc.
ASP (little experience) - a scripting language like PHP, but not as good and powerful. I prefer PHP over ASP; I learned the basics of ASP just to know how to use it in case I'll ever need it.
WML - the language used to create WAP sites for mobile phones.
XML - a language used to organise data with markup similar to HTML. Languages like WML and RSS have been created out of XML.
RSS (since 10th May 2005) - a quick way of obtaining news without having to check a site periodically.
JavaScript (since 6th July 2006) - probably the most popular client-side scripting language around.

PHP Scripts I've Written

I wrote several scripts in PHP for my various sites. I even released some to the public (see my Computer Corner site). These include:

A forum script
A guestbook script
A hit counter
A contact script
A numeric converter that converts numerical formats between binary, octal, decimal and hexadecimal
A script to preview HTML with
A currency converter
A news poster
An interactive multiple-choice quiz script
A poll script
A control panel
A hit logger, that logs website hits better than the hit counter above, as it also logs additional information such as referrers, browsers, etc.
A glossary script

Programming

I started actual programming in August/September 2002, in C++. Since that time until I got to University, the only other 'real' programming language I learned was Pascal (I had to learn it for school). In summer 2004 I got my first taste of Object Oriented Programming and programming graphical programs, and I wrote a cross-platform remake of Minesweeper to practise. That game eventually got two sequels, which you can explore at my Minesweeper Legacy site.

When I got to University (since October 2005) I learned several other languages, and a lot of good programming techniques. Among the programming languages I now know are:

C++ - multi-paradigm language (imperative, object-oriented and generic programming)
Pascal - imperative language
Java - strictly object oriented language
Prolog - logic programming language
Haskell - functional programming language
C - imperative language