About

Albert Sapsford

Essentially

I am a professional, independent Web developer living in Johannesburg who provides:

  • New Web sites and Web applications
  • Web site administration, including site updates and monthly maintenance

I'm highly enthusiastic about the potential the Internet affords to all, and am committed to helping my clients realise their online goals — both short- and long-term.

Experience

I have developed and administered small- and medium-scale Web sites for more than six years. References are available on request.

The Future

I enjoy both Web development and working independently immensely, and look forward to an industrious future full of useful Web sites; and, happily: endless learning.

My Qualities

Thorough knowledge of Web design and W3C standards

A Web site developed according to W3C standards is accessible and useable by all. This is fundamental, and without it your Web site is limited at best, broken at worst.

Organised and methodical structuring of Web sites

The overall structure of a Web site must be carefully planned. Time invested in developing the site's information architecture yields a Web site that is understandable and easy to use.

Clear and logical page layout

The visual arrangement of a single Web page must aid understanding of its content, i.e. its text and images. If information is clearly grouped and hierarchised, your message will be exact and easily digested.

Good English

Text must be conveyed simply and directly, or its meaning may be lost. Through skilled copy-editing and copywriting, your message is made eloquent and precise.

Tasteful graphic design

Your image ought to be accurately and tastefully represented. An artistic approach to aesthetics produces a Web site that is stylish and stimulating.

Sturdy programming and database design

All Web sites require dynamic functionality, even just a little. At a maximum, interactive sites hinge altogether on programming and databases. Experienced modelling and coding afford functionality that is tailor-made and solid.

Well-established maintenance procedures

Individual Web sites exist relative to the World Wide Web, and are subject to its changes and the odd tampering. Web site maintenance provides systematic readjustment, keeping your site current, functional and secure.

Painstaking attention to detail

Work on your Web site is executed in a measured way, and refined a great deal. Your audience thus enjoys a quality, functioning Web site. All code is annotated and intelligible, speeding up subsequent Web development.

Technology

LAMP

I use the LAMP architecture — being operating system, Web server, relational database and programming language of: Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP.

Web applications deployed using this software are inexpensive, reliable, scalable and secure. Therefore, this combination is popular and very well-supported in the Web industry.

XHTML/CSS/XML/XSLT/JS

The primary languages I use to develop Web sites are XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets.

To store and present lots of highly detailed data, I may use XML and XSLT. For minor programming I may use JavaScript.

I always work according to the latest Web standards.

Credits

For the kind use of their beautiful photographs in my Web site templates, I am very grateful to Duarte Augusto and Chance Agrella.

For freedom to use and modify FOSS software, I thank the free/open source software communities. See Richard Stallman's "Why Software Should Be Free" for clarification.