Web Development

Early history..

I first started coding in Jr. High school, circa 1988. It was basic on an Apple IIc or Comodore 64, if memory serves me. At first it was drawing rocket ships out of blocks, and then holding down the Enter key to watch them take off! Then came the basic commands of PRINT and GOTO! Woo Hoo!!

In high school, I learned how to create and run a BBS (Bulletin Board System). This was in the 89-93 era, when the internet was still confined to college campuses and government agencies, and people named protocols after vermit that dig holes in your lawn. I remember learning to draw ANSI art in TheDraw, and creating various pages of the BBS.

After high school, I went on to a community college and learned Pascal, C, and C++.

The Webs

I learned HTML and some basic VBScript on my own in the mid-1990's, when the internet was first starting to reach the main stream, and people refered to it as the World Wide Web. I did some freelance web page design back then, and was eventually put in to the position of webmaster at my work. Being a Microsoft™ shop, I had to learn ASP (eww). Next came ASP.Net and more VBScript. Along with the ASP/.Net came learning to write queries in MS-SQL, and minor database design. Finally, in the early 2000's, came PHP, JavaScript and MySQL. Then, Symphony, Prototype / Jquery, and Postgres.

I also became a basic web designer along the way. It's a need that I had to learn because I often found myself in the position of needing to do everything. I've always had an artistic side going back to 9 years of voice and piano lessons. Photoshop came pretty easy. Flash was just downright fun! I can cut up designs in to HTML, CSS and images in no time flat!

These dasy I consider myself a well-rounded web developer, which fits perfectly for my position at TakeLessons. I started out as a second developer under the lead developer. I guess I proved my worth. I moved up to become the manager of software development, managing a team of 6 developers. We develop using the agile philosophy, and I'm slowly also becoming a Scrum Master and agile coach!

Jason Holderness

Web Development

Early history..

The Webs

Some sites I've worked on: