I started developing small web tools all the way back in 2004. I think the first one was a simple RGB ⇆ CMYK converter. The only scripting language I knew back then was ASP (Windows/IIS), which means that after a couple of years, I had developed a set of ASP-based tools. They followed my interests: musical, crypto, sudoku, web-development... I learned a lot about HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ASP while developing them, the experience helped me a lot. In 2006 I decided to make them all available under one domain name. This was web.forret.com.
Then, around 2009 I started working more and more with PHP. For those of you who are no programmers, if ASP is like a Ford Fiesta, PHP is more like a Ford Mustang. After a while, it became hard to go back and fix ASP bugs, so I left web.forret.com as it was, on its ASP island and dove into this new PHP world. And I started developing tools in PHP, things like an RSS feed checker, a depth-of-field calculator. However, I couldn't put these tools on the same server as the older ones, because that server only did ASP, no PHP. I started by parking them under tools.forret.com, later hdslr-cinema.com with some others, and it just looked like a big mess. Different layouts, different subdomains, different logic.
In 2015 I finally decided that I should clean up and consolidate. I purchased this new domain name toolstud.io, used better PHP templating, source code version control, a more modern layout, and the most recent version of my self-developed libraries. And I started the work of converting my ASP-based tools to PHP. It's not rocket science, and every tool in PHP works better than the old ASP one, but I just need to find the time.
In June 2016 my old hosting expired, I forgot to pay in time, and I decided that I would redirect all traffic to this new server, even if it didn't have all the old tools yet. It just doesn't make any sense to pay for two different hostings for a small side-project.
If there is a tools that you used a lot, and you would really like to see it back, please contact me on [email protected] and ask about it. It is not just a copy/paste I have to do, I need to convert it from ASP to PHP and I need time for that.
I hope you enjoy these tools and that they make your life easier.
Cheers, Peter.
