Hi, I’m Avi Tevet, currently a freelance developer based in Portland, OR.  I’m going to be writing about not only how to use technology, but also when to use it.

Let’s say you’ve got a website that allows people to post detailed information about their gardens – sun/shade, garden beds, watering quantities and timings, pictures, and more.  This kind of site collects a lot of user input, and so probably has a lot of forms.  Bad form validation that causes frustration might drive users away and destroy your business, but what should you do to create good form validation?  There are a lot of options and not a lot of clear answers – when should you use client-side validation? (always).  When should you use server-side validation? (always).  When can you start using modern validation APIs like the Constraint Validation API? (probably immediately, if you also use a polyfill).  These are the types of questions that I’ll be asking, and answering, in this blog.  BTW, I’ll explain those answers in future posts.

Making decisions about which technology to use can be the most difficult part of the software development process.  These decisions can have fundamental, far reaching schedule and performance impact on the software product, so it’s important to make the best decision possible.  Unfortunately, there’s frequently not much high quality information available online to help a developer make a good decision about what technology to use in a given situation.  I hope that I can fill a little bit of that gap.

If you find the information on this site valuable, please let me know by replying to the post you find helpful!  As a beginning blogger myself, I’m looking for feedback on what I can do better.  If you see anything amiss: incorrect or missing information, a poor recommendation, or even something as small as a typo, please post a comment!  Also, feel free to email your questions about when to use a particular technology or technique to whentouseit@avitevet.com – I’ll do my best to answer it.