History

Thebws started out as my first real foray into web design. I've been designing web pages since 1996, but in 1999 I decided to take the leap and move away from the free web host I was with (thanks to Tripod for giving me my first home) and register my own domain. I taught myself (x)HTML, Javascript, CSS and CGI/perl from many online resources, from books and from examining a lot of code and fiddling with it. Thebws has always been my testing ground. As I learned new things, I incorporated them into the site. Because of this, the site has never really been "finished." It's an ongoing, ever-evolving project. Since 1999, the site has gone through a number of complete overhauls - I never could quite settle on a layout I liked. This has caused me to continually learn new things, and stay on the cutting edge of web technologies and design. It's now 2007 and the web is undergoing tremendous change. I was finally able to settle on a system to manage my content, but in terms of design, thebws will continue to evolve, as I have a number of ideas swirling around my head :P . I am very excited at the prospect of finally bringing the site truly "live."

Server Side

I became interested in ASP and what it could offer in 2001. Ironically, I was on a linux-based server at the time (you can run ASP on linux, but it's use is limited at best). With the advent of AJAX, server side scripting has become very much en vogue. I spent a lot of time learning ASP.NET, however, since I don't have much formal compiled programming knowledge, I never really found it as useful as the ASP (which is interpreted rather than compiled). Since shelfing ASP.NET, I've picked up PHP, and I expect all my work from here on out to be in PHP.

Teaching Through Code

As I said earlier, everything I know about web design and scripting can be attributed to the code and work of others. I truly believe dissecting code is the best way to learn. It's an organic approach. The scripts I've written for public release were all made to fill a need I had. I fully comment all my source code so that anyone who uses it can follow along with the commented source and learn as I learned.

The Future

Standards compliant coding has become a great passion of mine. For any designer who has been at this for almost a decade now, the idea of having your work look the same across platforms is very appealing. When I started out, browser detection and redirection was the norm. These days, I believe in strict coding which maintains a meaningful, symantic structure. To that end, you may notice that the entire site has been coded to conform to the strictest web standards (click on the copyright logo below :D). I code mostly by hand, although I do use Dreamweaver occasionally. :)

Unfortunately, because of school and work, I don't find as much time to work on the site as I'd like to. I continue to learn and to write articles in my spare time though. I'd like to thank all the readers who have supported thebws over the years and sent me many pieces of encouraging mail. Though the site has always been my personal testing grounds, I'm glad that others find it useful also.

Thanks again,
Brandon