Programming

• Application Programming
  
  • This has the feeling of being more accurate than Web design which is stateless. Application programming is procedural and seems to have a more definitive start and and end to the running program. Web design uses a stateless or asynchronous method of coding.
  • We can code on Windows and port to Linux or Apple Mac. This means we can develop applications which natively can run on Linux and Mac and Windows which means we bend to the customer's preferred operating system.
  • On Windows we can leverage the VSTO method of adding a program to your favourite Microsoft 365 (M365) Application. These Add-ins seamlessly integrate with the now famous M365 Ribbons. We could be designing a Database aware merge facility to Word, or a number crunching facility to Excel. Similarly we can create our own formula that can extract directly from the database holding your company's information.
• Web design
  • Front end
    • We can write front ends to websites and design them to meet your high standards. We deliver attempts and take suggestion, iterating until we have it just right for your appraisal.
  • Backend
    • Backend code the user never sees. when operating the website, however, is a valuable part of the program. Perhaps more valuable to the running website than the frontend. To present on the frontend there needs to be backend activity supplying information to your browser to render a suitable display of information or input facility. In actual fact the information rendered in the browser all comes from the server. The frontend >interprets< the information sent by the backend.
  • In similar fashion to Application programming I can create web programs which can be hosted on Apple or Linux servers.
• Linux Apache MySQL Php (LAMP)
  • This style of coding goes with WordPress and we are proficient at configuring and extending WordPress sites.
  • WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) program which is very widely used on the internet.
  • Because it uses frontend technologies to render the site we can use our frontend skills to manipulate the display and even write our own plugins (we are still learning how to do this).
• WinService, Worker Process or Daemon
  • These types of programs are always on in the computer monitoring the database for triggers for work. Or the filesystem for drop points indicating some work needs to be done.
  • These programs do not require the user to be logged in to function so the server need may not need a desktop open to have the program function.
  • Daemons are the Linux, and Apple Mac equivalent of the WinService and Worker process which are for Windows.

Database

• Database Programming
  • To be a Database Administrator (DBA) is a hugely responsible part of the coding team.
  • Often they are the gatekeeper protecting the integrity of the Database from the application or web programmer wanting to create new tables or columns in existing tables.
  • However, in small teams the DBA might be part of the function of one or more programmers and a slightly looser development cycle may be entertained.
  • The DBA would create and maintain table structures and optimise using indexes and primary keys the tables that contain the data.