About

Since 2001 I have been building web sites and web applications for various public, private and non-profit organizations in Canada and abroad. My strengths are in PHP and MySQL application development, but I am also involved in web planning and risk assessments.

So Why Start a Blog?

There are two main reasons why I started this blog. The first is to bring forward real world experiences and views on application development, planning and web strategy to new web application developers out there. Anything from talking about a particular software tool, to explaining why simple is almost always better when building a site – this blog will cover it all from the perspective of a seasoned application developer.

The second reason this blog exists is as a way to help me keep a knowledge base of material that I can come back to when I need it. I’m an avid reader, and while I try to incorporate new material I’ve learned into my work, my main goal in application development is to keep things simple and straight forward. Yes, innovation is important; but, not when it impedes on the ability of an application to be maintained in the future.

Here’s a important tip for developers who are just starting out – if you’re going to be innovative, plan it out before you implement it. If it doesn’t work as you expect, you’ll end up creating a system that is hard to manage and change in the future.

All systems change, including the one you’re working on right now.

So that’s about it for me and why this blog exists. I hope you enjoy the posts and hopefully take away some positive information to help you in your work.

- Alfredo Scaini, Web Application Developer