Hello, I'm Ben, a

PHP Developer

and a cat lover

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Welcome to my site

Here's a little about me

I'm Ben, a full-stack developer based near London, UK. Most of my time is spent on the internet, I admit that. I follow tech/coding videos (Laracasts) & programmers on Twitter, and I help out on open source software via GitHub & GitLab.

My skills and programming stack are in the below section so if you want to know more!

Skills

Main Stack

Php Logo

PHP

PHP was my first server-side programming language and it's still my strongest. PHP 7 has come a long way.

Debian Logo

Linux

Most of the time, I'm using Debian for servers. Great things have come from it and it's one of the best.

nginx Logo

nginx

My standard. Wonderfully crafted piece of software. Easy to configure and get running. Great for a fast, modern web server.

MariaDB Logo

MariaDB

Can't fault it. I find MariaDB a great drop-in replacement for MySQL and use it for my local environment.

Laravel Logo

Laravel

Been using it since v4 and it's been a breeze. Small sites to large systems, it just works and has some amazing features.

Tools & Goodies Stack

Beginner

Sass Logo

I've been using SASS (SCSS syntax) for all the Laravel projects I've been working on. This includes Bootstrap 4 while also working with full custom code. Gulp.js was used to manage compiling but I'm moving onto Webpack. I understand how to use it.
Beginner

Gulp.js Logo

Gulp was a heavy part of my development process until Webpack got introduced to me. Gulp can be used for more task orientated things but for compiling sass and ES2015, it's perfect. With Laravel it's a breeze since you can version files the exact same way.
Capable

Vue.js Logo Vue.js

I was reluctant to try Vue when it was introduced to me but after using it for mini project features like managing form inputs based on selection or modifying HTML within forms, it became clear that this was powerful and easy to implement. After that, I decided to use it in a large SaaS app to manage 80% of all elements.
Moderate

Git Logo

Git, GitHub, and GitLab are in my daily tools for sure. I have a self-hosted version of GitLab and use GitHub for public repos and contributing to OSS (Open Source Software). Fun fact: I've never tried svn.
Moderate

MySQL Logo

MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and SQLite are some databases I've used. MariaDB was an obvious choice as a drop-in replacement for MySQL.
Beginner

Redis Logo

Redis just sounds cool. I've used it for queues and session data with Laravel. I also have experience with Beanstalkd for queues.
Beginner

Python Logo

The only real thing I've done in Python is do some custom modules for a game server monitor that parsed the log file and responded to the server with RCON responses. I've also done some hacking around with web requests.
Beginner

Perl Logo Perl

The only real thing I've done in Perl is a socket server to manage game servers. I can understand it and work out what to do but I was going crazy over managing forks for child processes. Things I've implemented are JSON, Logging, Sockets, and Configs.
Beginner

npm Logo

I use npm and Yarn to run commands for projects and packages. Just started on WebPack with Laravel Mix but it's going great so far! This website is using WebPack/Laravel Mix.
Capable

Vagrant Logo

I used to use Vagrant for building custom VMs but have opted for Laravel Valet nowadays since it's so easy to view new projects. I use Virtual Box along with Vagrant.
Mixed

Frameworks

CodeIgniter, WordPress, PyroCMS (CI days), and CakePHP
Get in touch

Contact me for a chit-chat

I am happy to help out on Laravel projects on a generous rate for the work and experience.
If you're interested in working with me or hiring me, please contact me above.
I have personal projects that can always use someone to help with as well!
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