Alex Gant

I have been working with Apple Macintosh hardware and software since 2001 and so it is my platform of choice for creating and developing. Supporting this, I work with Linux based web servers as well as Windows PC’s to ensure full compatibility with the world’s mainstream OS.

Web Development Apps:

• Balsamiq Mockups for rapid wireframing
• MAMP Pro to run a full Apache, PHP and MySQL environment on Mac OS X
• Sublime Text 2 – as its name suggests, this app is truly sublime.
• SourceTree – Version control software from Atlassian
• Apple Terminal – because you can never be without a good CLI
• Transmit 4 – still the best FTP client for Mac OS X
• Sequel Pro – a great little MySQL GUI for Mac OS X

Design and Illustration:

• Adobe Photoshop to CC – been using it since version 5 and I still love working with it
• Adobe Illustrator to CC – love, love, love it. So much fun with my Wacom
• Adobe Acrobat – the de facto standard for prepping documents for print

Languages:

• HTML / XHTML
• CSS (to CSS3)
• PHP (procedural and object-oriented to v5.5)
• JavaScript (mainly functions and interaction with the DOM.)
• Markdown
• PHPDoc
• ASP & VBScript (haven’t developed with these two languages for a few years now though!)

CMS’, Libraries and Frameworks:

• WordPress – considerable experience from v2.7 to v4.2
• Magento – up to 1.9
• Drupal – some experience in administration. Not my favourite CMS!
• JShop Server – a very handy, highly customisable and very extensible eCommerce solution
• jQuery
• CakePHP – A nice, simple MVC-based PHP framework

Other Software:

• Apple Final Cut Pro (to version 7 / before it became iMovie Pro)
• Camtasia Studio – My favourite software of 2012. Makes creating awesome screencasts an absolute breeze
• MS Office – a bit like shaving; an everyday, necessary evil!
• Apple iWork – Now that’s more like it!
• MPEG StreamClip – A lovely little video converter with some very handy pre-sets.
• Adobe Flash CS3 – I rarely use this anymore but used to do a fair bit of Flash work (before iOS murdered it)
• Google SketchUp – designed my house and loft extension with this. Ace stuff and free to boot.
• Audacity – Nice, free little audio editor. Great for Podcasts and voiceover work