The Den
The first web site
A later effort
The physical Den was a cupboard in our flat in Pinner where I set up my computer and kept a remarkable amount of other stuff.
However, the ‘virtual’ Den is my website and here’s how it came about.
I bought a BBC Micro around 1983 and that’s where it all started. In those days it was all BBC Basic programming and even a bit of assembler, although there was some impressive commercial software available for the Beeb. The ‘Inter’ series of word processor (Inter-Word) , spreadsheet (Inter-Sheet) and charting program (Inter-Chart) was quite remarkable considering the limited memory available to the developers.
The 64k Beeb had 32k in RAM and a 32k BBC Basic ROM chip. The ‘Inter’ programs came on 32k ROM chips, and later on rather cleverly piggy-backed 2x32k units, and when running displaced the installed BBC Basic functionality.
I progressed eventually to a PC (Windows 3.1) and was of course an early Internet adopter.
My son had started a web design business with a friend and it wasn’t long before he challenged me to build a web site, suggesting I just use a basic a text editor. This I did, with my HTML book.
Bob’s Den was launched, circa 2001.
The door ‘opened’ using a mouse-over effect and animated giffs were plentiful. Very much first-generation web design.
This was continually tweaked, and having subsequently acquired a proper HTML editor things became a little easier. I moved on to Microsoft’s FrontPage (big mistake) and eventually to Expression Web (much better).
Back to top
In 2006, I completely rebuilt the site.
We had moved to the Fens at this time, so the site became Bob’s Den in the Fens.
The time came, however, to move on from basic HTML and build a site that met modern web design standards. In 2008 I bought an iMac and over the next two years gradually moved from Windows to Mac OS X as my platform of choice. I still run Windows as a virtual machine using VMware Fusion but I now use it very little. I bought books on CCS-based web design and will, one day, get to grips with it. However, this site is the product of Rapidweaver, a Mac-based web design package that provides CCS templates and leaves you to add the content. At first I missed being able to get into the code, but having become familiar with Rapidweaver’s environment, I succumbed to the ease with which results can be obtained.
Back to top