If you’re a PHP developer, you can build Rails-like applications without learning a new language by following the hands-on tutorials in Professional CodeIgniter. In this book, find an overview of MVC and agile technologies, model and schema for products, helpers and libraries, Ajax and Scriptaculous, and explanations of the creation of applications like content management, blogs, and forums. Follow the step-by-step instructions for building and perfecting each application with CodeIgniter, and you will learn how to avoid everyday problems that other reference manuals don’t address.
I was born in the Republic of Panama to an American father and Panamanian mother. My mother's side of the family is ginormous--she had 7 brothers and sisters, and each of them had at least 3 or 4 kids (good Catholics!) so it turns out that there is a plenitude of cousinage.
I went to school in what was known as the Panama Canal Zone, graduating from Balboa High School shortly before the bombs fell on Noriega in 1989. I attend Panama Canal College before transferring to UT San Antonio, where I earned a bachelor's in English and met my lovely wife Hope.
After graduating from UTSA in 1992, I attended SUNY-Binghamton in upstate, frozen tundra New York to get my Master's degree (part Medieval English Lit, part Linguistics, part Comparative Lit). Then we returned to San Antonio where I started my career as an editor for The Psychological Corporation, a division of Harcourt Brace.
In 1996 I got my big break in hi-tech, joining a little startup called WheelGroup Corporation, where I was part-time Webmaster and full-time technical writer for a UNIX-based intrusion detection product line. What an education! Wow.
We were acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998, which meant a move to Austin TX. The first thing we noticed was how different Austin was from the rest of Texas--like light and day. I don't think Austin has ever voted majority Republican for president in the last 30 or 40 years (okay, maybe Reagan).
I had been involved with XML before Cisco, but within days of becoming a Ciscoite, I got roped into various XML-related projects and undertakings. I learned a lot about XML document analysis and the pure politics of markup languages.
In 1999 I moved on to Vignette Corporation, where I was a technical writer and information architect. There we worked on various portals and CMS engagements. That lasted until 2001, when I left to go out on my own full time.
I've been running Triple Dog Dare Media ever since. In 2004 I was approached by SitePoint to write a basic XML book, and that eventually became No Nonsense XML Web Development with PHP.
