Technical Skills - Overview

The website you are now reading is entirely hand coded (excepting the use of a slide show component deep in the sub-website Web Prototyper). View the source and find semantically clean XHTML markup.

The website you are now reading liberally uses (largely old school) EcmaScript/Javascript. For example I've coded the menu using JavaScript (see Ideas Tree Menu > Setup).

My JavaScript Regex Tester is handy tool.

WebTechniquesReference.pdf is a repository of techniques that span several web technologies (e.g. the basic principles of using XHTML and CSS for mobile friendliness and responsive design) or apply to setting up a website as a whole (e.g. configuring caching with HTTP Headers on a Web Sever, like Apache).

The website you are now reading uses many of the techniques in WebTechniquesReference.pdf.

This website makes extensive use of PHP. Chiefly to create a templating environment where content pages are therefore relatively lean to code (because repeating custom elements, like the menu, are inserted via PHP).

For an example of my PHP code that does something interesting view the PHP source of a dynamically generated gallery. Essentially, from a set of uploaded images: thumbnails are generated; metadata is extracted; and the set of thumbnails are grouped and sorted with relevant metadata. See the resulting gallery.

About two years full time work in my early career (with irregular ad hoc use since then), across several organisations, left me with an advanced affinity with this technology set. Such that I've never felt a need to write references for them.

To the extent that I need to lean on references (apart from google) I tend to use my hard copy versions of (books from third party authors):

Developed (either solo or in a team) custom solutions for a range of industries:

• A quote and ordering system for selling bulk custom stationary (solo);
• A system for engineers to stipulate nuclear safety requirements for the refit and refuel of nuclear submarines (team);
• data migration and data cleansing to produce a software catalogue for distribution to clients on a CD (solo);
• A system to schedule the inspection of NSW Dept. of Housing properties, via interoperation with MapInfo (a GIS), and log telephone calls from residents (solo).

Recreationally I've created a Flight Plan Database as an adjunct for MS Flight Simulator.

I've used MS Access to interoperate with MS Office programs: MS Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel.

I've used powershell over the years to automate a range of ad hoc tasks on Windows, including:

• A utility to rename files with a datetime suffix, for back up/archiving purposes, on the windows file explorer right click menu.
• Creating self-signed X509 compliant certificate-authorities and certificates for use on development web servers.
• The files that comprise this website are pulled via Powershell from several locations on the client side, before upload to the production web server.

Before the existence of Powershell I used WSH for automating Windows tasks where .Bat files where too limited. And so, for example, I created XslWebMaker a static website generator that uses WSH (in addition to XSL).

These days I'd reach for Powershell.

I've made a handful of production Github pull requests.

One really doesn't have "skill in XML" as such. As XmlQuickReference.pdf shows the format is simple. The entry is here partly in case recruiters are, nevertheless, looking for someone with "XML skills". And partly to have the reference online.

However, for the sake of demonstrating I'm at ease taking XML and transforming it see my demo at Ajax From Scratch.

See my XslWebMaker a static website generator that uses XSL (XSLT and XPath).

Generally I think XSL is ugly to work with and these days I would rather reach for any procedural programming language/script (JavaScript, Java, Powershell, VBA, etc) to process and transform XML directly.

Official sources:

• Original Gruber Markdown
• Pandoc User’s Guide, Pandoc's Markdown
• CommonMark

My (basic) guide:

• PandocMarkdownStyleGuide.md

As for XML and JSON one doesn't quite have "skill in Markdown" as such. It's a simple format (at least in the original Gruber form).

However there's a set of tips and tricks to learn to write pandoc markdown so that, with knowledge of how to call pandoc, a production document can be transformed according to one's goals. A set of tips and tricks partially embodied in my PandocMarkdownStyleGuide.md.

Official Source:

• Pandoc User’s Guide

Mine:

• PandocUsageQuickReference.md

Pandoc is 'just' a command line tool. Upon encountering it for the first time it'll take you only, say, 10 minutes to transform a simple 'hello world' markdown document to pdf (or some other desired format like XHTML or EPUB). However, using Pandoc to create production documents can be involved. PandocUsageQuickReference.md demonstrates some of the basics, taking you beyond 'hello world' examples.

So, for example, from AcademicJournalExample-MDBased.md, AcademicJournalExample-MDBased.bib, and some (detailed) configuration options, pandoc can transform those source documents via latex into AcademicJournalExample-MDBased.pdf

For example starting with AcademicJournalExample-TexBased.tex, journtab.sty and other supporting latex code I've written, yield AcademicJournalExample-TexBased.pdf. This is without using Pandoc at all.

I'm chiefly a mere user of Zotero.

With respect to BBT I've made the occasional bug report, always addressed superbly by the developer Emiliano Heyns (github: retorquere).

I have coded custom Citation Style Language (CSL) formats (e.g. by modding Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (author-date)).

With respect to Biblatex I've raised suggestions around extending it to several kinds of datetime format. For example, BCE/BC and CE/AD support; approximate dates, date ranges, uncertain dates; and a raft of other datetime formats. And so with considerable programming effort from the main Biblatex developer, Philip Kime (github: plk) - and contributions on discussions from several thoughtful users - Extended Date/Time Format (EDTF) support was given to Biblatex.

From there EDTF support either fanned out into the other parts of the citation/bibliographic software ecosystem or was independently arising. I don't mean to suggest my efforts here were necessary. If I didn't raise these issues they'd have been raised by others at some point.

In any case in Biblatex, and (with varying levels of support) in other parts of the citation/bibliographic software ecosystem, you can now, for example, cite: Plato's Republic "(Plato [379BC] 2004)"; Da Vinci's Codex Trivulzianus "(da Vinci 1487/1490)"; and all the other EDTF formats to level 1.