Hi I’m Mike Shannon
A coder at heart and helping others learn to code!
I’ve been writing code, building web sites and software for over 20 years (since 1999!)
Coding is fun and rewarding!
But it can seem daunting to figure out where to start.
That’s why I started this website.
To help others see it’s actually easy and fun to get started. And once you get started it’s even easier to keep learning.
Ready to start leaning how to code?
Or
A little more about Mike
Back in the early nineties as a kid growing up, I was in awe when my dad brought home a 386 desktop computer (that’s a really really old computer).
I could do Microsoft paint. It. Was. Amazing.
A few years later as a teenager I was building computers from spare parts and trips to local computer stores when I got the chance.
In 1999 as a Junior in high school going into my second semester I saw an “Intro to Computer Science” class – I immediately signed up. Had no idea what is was all about but it sounded so cool. Because why not?
In that class I began leaning the basics of programming through C++. Using Windows 98 and the DOS environment. Things like variables, loops, conditionals, basic functions and even, yes, printing stuff to the screen! 🙂
Then I took the full year AP Computer Science course my senior year. Learning all about things like functions (a little more than the intro course taught), passing by value vs reference, classes, inheritance, pointers, linked lists, etc.
In 2000 after graduating high school I discovered web programming using PHP and MySQL (along with Linux and Apache as an OS and a web server respectively).
I thought, wow I can create an interactive website and store stuff in a database? Yes!
And have used PHP ever since.
I later received my bachelors in Computer Science and a Masters Degree in Information Systems.
Along the way I’ve been building websites, web apps, software products, been in charge of web sites and software quality at a Publicly Traded Company.
And still going!