Long before Web 2.0 and single-page applications, I crafted message boards, a profilenation-like social networking interface for my friends, and a music database all using good ol’ HTML and PHP, mainly because that’s what you could do with free hosting at the time.
I didn’t have funding or a team, I just wanted to get my hands dirty with the coding and cobbling something together that persisted data from page to page. I was also a budding bedroom DJ and thought it would be cool if there was something like profilenation (who remembers when it was called facewhore?) but for performers to find gigs – or even house parties – looking for DJs.
I did have maintainability in mind so was conscious of my application being modular and lightweight, especially where free hosting provisions didn’t provide the fastest response times, especially between web server and database server.
I also knew I hated repeating myself – which happened when Microsoft launched Active Server Pages and I decided to start again with designing and implementing the database that would support it in this environment.
I quickly adopted ASP.NET when it dropped, but at the time hosting options were limited for hobbyists and developers. The launch of Azure and its free-tier services solidified my decision to press ahead in .NET.
I understood classes and properties already and was amazed at the concept of mapping relationships, enforcing constraints, – and not having to worry about SQL injection every five minutes.
It honestly felt like cheating at first! I understood the power of a well-defined schema, and how code could reflect intent instead of just implementation.
Inspecting the structure of other people’s projects on GitHub also taught me that a single solution in Visual Studio could be separated into different projects.
Leave a Reply