Daniel
Porter

GitHub is the backbone of my development workflow, far beyond just version control. I use Actions for CI/CD pipelines, automating tests, builds, and deployments. Pull requests facilitate code reviews and collaboration, while Issues and Projects help manage tasks and roadmaps. I love how it integrates with virtually every development tool, creating a seamless ecosystem. The social aspect—following developers, exploring trending repos, and contributing to open source—keeps me connected with the community and continuously learning. GitHub Copilot has also become an invaluable AI pair programmer, accelerating my coding with intelligent suggestions.

Tailwind CSS has completely transformed how I approach styling. The utility-first approach means I rarely write custom CSS anymore—everything is composed directly in markup with intelligent, consistent design tokens. The development speed is incredible, and the resulting code is surprisingly maintainable when combined with component extraction. I love the built-in responsive modifiers, dark mode support, and how it encourages design consistency. The JIT compiler ensures tiny production builds despite using hundreds of utilities. With Tailwind UI components as starting points, I can build professional interfaces in a fraction of the time it used to take.

With over 20 years of WordPress experience, I've seen it evolve from a simple blogging platform to a powerful CMS powering 40% of the web. The real skill? Being able to wade through a decade-old WordPress site, migrate the data cleanly, and rebuild it with best practices—all while keeping the business running. While my focus has shifted to modern JavaScript frameworks, WordPress remains valuable for content-heavy sites and clients who need user-friendly content management. I've built countless custom themes and plugins, integrated WooCommerce for complex e-commerce solutions, and optimized WordPress sites for performance and SEO.

Next.js and React are my go-to frameworks for building modern web applications. I love how Next.js extends React with server-side rendering, static site generation, and API routes out of the box. The developer experience is unmatched—from automatic code splitting to image optimization, it handles the heavy lifting so I can focus on creating exceptional user experiences. I particularly appreciate the seamless Vercel integration for instant deployments and the ability to leverage edge functions for optimal performance. React's component-based architecture and hooks make building complex UIs intuitive and maintainable.

Cloudflare is my Swiss Army knife for web performance and security. Beyond basic CDN and DDoS protection, I leverage Workers for edge computing—running code closer to users for ultra-low latency. Their DNS is blazing fast and reliable, while features like automatic image optimization, Argo smart routing, and Web Analytics provide comprehensive performance insights without compromising user privacy. I particularly appreciate their generous free tier and how they're constantly innovating—from R2 storage to D1 databases. The ability to implement complex logic at the edge with Workers has opened up new architectural possibilities for my applications.

Vercel has transformed my deployment workflow with its git-based continuous deployment and automatic preview URLs for every pull request. The edge network ensures lightning-fast load times globally, while features like automatic HTTPS, serverless functions, and analytics make it a complete platform. I appreciate how it optimizes Next.js applications automatically—from image optimization to font loading. The DX (developer experience) is exceptional: push to git and it's live in seconds. Their focus on performance metrics and Core Web Vitals helps me deliver faster, better experiences to users.

Supabase has revolutionized how I work with databases by providing instant APIs on top of PostgreSQL. I love the real-time subscriptions, built-in authentication, and the fact that it's open-source. The auto-generated APIs save countless hours of boilerplate code, while still giving me full access to PostgreSQL's powerful features when needed—from complex queries and functions to triggers and RLS policies. PostgreSQL itself is my database of choice for its reliability, performance, and extensive feature set including JSONB support, full-text search, and excellent data integrity.