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About the author of this site

[A pic of me]

Name:
Mark Wilton-Jones - But I am usually known as "Tarquin" (approximately タクイン in Katakana, Takłyn w języku polskim, Такуын в Россию, eller Takuinn på Norsk)
DOB:
Early 1980

Programming history:

I first learned to program in 1986 using IBM REXX, a scripting language that ran at the DOS command line. I started writing seriously in 1993 using the same language, where I wrote my own databases and database querying language to display a list of caves in my local area. I had also learned some Batch scripting (.bat).

I first used HTML in about 1995 to document my caving trips, where I used a variation of Lynx to view the pages. When I started at university, I was finally given my own computer, and I quickly learned to write better HTML, although in a very amateurish style. I soon had my first homepage, which looked ugly, like many homepages.

During my first year at uni in 1998-9, I was taught Pascal, a very limited, procedure based programming language without file handling (well, it can do file handling, and new versions do support object oriented programming, but they didn't teach us how to). My second year saw me using C++, feeling very confused by what it all meant. The object oriented programming side of it came in my third year. During my second year, I also learned assembly code, which I once used to write a microcontroller program to display images on an oscilloscope. Wow.

In my third and final year, I learned some DHTML, having been playing around with JavaScript for a while. The first DHTML I did was with IE4+. One of my housemates convinced me that this was too narrow minded. He was a linux user, and could not use IE. I learned NS4 layers DHTML, and within two days, I also learned how to make it work in all of the other DHTML browsers like Opera and Konqueror.

The same housemate also taught me how to program in PHP and I used the online manual to learn the MySQL syntax, which I then used along with CSS, which he also taught me, to create my online caves database.

The same year, I formed a band with myself as lead guitarist (not very good ...) and singer. I wrote our homepage which had some JavaScript that produced errors if the frameset did not load fast enough, some php questionnairs, and my first JavaScript game, minsesweeper. The game gave me ideas, and soon I had written several more, which I put on my free games site.

Alongside producing the games, I was also writing database driven sites for customers, doing some remote work for a London based web development company, and writing this site. After two years, it was finally ready to hit the internet.

The site has been going for over four years now, and I have changed many aspects of it during that time. I have taught myself more and more advanced JavaScript techniques, and I will continue to learn. My scripts and my scripting techniqes will continue to improve. However, although I have learned about XML and how to use XSL to make it readable in a variety of different formats, I have not yet found any use for it that cannot be done with MySQL and PHP, and it is by no means cross browser compatible, so I do not see myself adopting it yet. The same goes for XHTML. I know how it works. I can use it if necessary, but for now, I see no point as ALL browsers understand HTML already.

OK, I have found one very good use for it. I can use it with a new programming language I have been teaching myself; VoiceXML, so I can make web pages that interact with spoken words. This is useful for users with accessibility needs, kiosk browsing, phone ordering, and even just a bit of fun.

During my final year of university, a friend and I had played around with QBasic, and we wrote several scripts, including a parallel port oscilloscope. During the next two years, I subsequently forgot all that I had learned about it, but now I have had to learn Visual Basic as a part of a previous job. This is something I had promised myself I would never do, because I don't want to show any support for what I consider to be the most dangerous programming language ever, with insecure implementations in far too many products on far too many computers. Still, if I get paid for it ...

At some point during my previous employment (which, as it happens, was at the same university as where I got my degree), I have also come across JSP, and I have also written a few short BASH scripts for my (home) web server. I have not had the time yet to learn these languages properly. Maybe some time in the future. I have managed to get myself on a Java course, so even though I would not call myself an expert, I am familiar with the syntax and how to write basic GUI programs. I have also done the same for Perl (console mode only), and the text manipulation power of this language will probably be the basis of future work, although I still believe that PHP is better suited to server-side web development.

No doubt in my current employment (at Opera Software ASA), I will get the chance to experiment with many more web based programming languages. See my job page in my Opera section for more details.

Sites I have created

[A pic of me]

This site was created by Mark "Tarquin" Wilton-Jones.
Don't click this link unless you want to be banned from our site.