Summary
Date
1999 - Present
Skills
Web Programming, Databases, Email, User Support
Technology
Perl, HTML, CSS, AJAX, SQL
Website
NPscripts.com
NPScripts was fully launched in March 2002, but the overall project started in September
1999 with the release of an overly simple form mail script.
I started the project as a response to the lack of computer classes I knew I was
going to encounter in high school. I wanted to learn how to program computers, and
I was not going to be able to take any classes until I was at least a junior in
high school. I chose to begin learn Perl because at the time it had not yet quite
been eclipsed by PHP as the web programming language of choice. By the end of my
first full month of high school I had already released the first version of NP Form
Mail. Ironically, the only real programming class offered by my high school (a very
basic C++ class) was cancelled by the time I could actually take it.
From that point I created a few more simple scripts (and updated the form mail script
a couple times) until I decided to make something much larger. I created the first
version of the NP Subscriber during my sophomore and Subscriber Pro my junior year.
These were much larger in scope than anything else I had previously attempted. Subscriber
Pro was also initially a commercial project, but it is now available free of charge
since I have not updated it in a few years given time constraints. Subscriber has
proven to be quite popular considering its complete lack of advertising. In five
years, the lighter version has generated nearly 9000 downloads. It is also a top-rated
and visited script on both the CGI Resource Index and HotScripts.
As mentioned, the Perl code currently on NPScripts.com was created a learning experience.
Nearly all of it (with the exception of a small update to Subscriber Pro) was written
while I was in high school. As such, the quality of the code is not terrific. However,
since the scripts were created outside of any classes, I feel that they are a great
demonstration of my self motivation, desire to learn, and ability to create working
software.
The website will continue to serve as a place for projects I release to the general
public. The quality of the new code will reflect the actual improvements I've made
in my abilities as a software engineer.
It will also be expanding beyond being Perl-exclusive, since I am now well-versed
in numerous other languages. I also continue to provide tech support to any users
of the scripts on the site.