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• How I Became a PHP and React Developer at 15
  Discover how I went from learning computer basics as a child to becoming a PHP and React developer at 15, building projects, launching SodiumNodes, and overcoming setbacks along the way.

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Overview

Robert Anthony Scianatico (A.K.A LookedRobob, Villager Boy)

Main founder and CEO of SodiumNodes

I’m 15 years old (21/12/2010), I’m a web developer specialized in PHP, React, JavaScript and MySQL and I regularly develop PocketMine plugins.

I’ve maintained many Minecraft servers before, like BlueGames, GalaxySky, and LuxuryCraft.

I had a YouTube channel called Villager Boy for around 4 years until it got banned twice. I created a new one, but I refuse to upload as much.

I can conclude this brief summary before I write anything else, otherwise you’ll stay here reading until midnight.

Top projects

Here are my top 3 projects ranked.

View all my projects on my portfolio.

My Tech Stack

Below I have added all the languages and tools and why I use them regularly to create web applications.

• PHP: My favourite programming language is PHP. Its syntax is simple and easy to read, even with the messiest code. The only downside I find while using this programming language is that it’s kind of basic and doesn’t really feature hot reloading well. Even with frameworks built for this issue, like Livewire, it can feel a bit out of order sometimes, which is why I refrain from using vanilla Laravel on a regular. However, PHP excels as the back-end language. This is where its “basic” nature turns into a pro and is no longer a con.
• MariaDB: Formerly MySQL, this is one of the best ways to store data. I enjoy the syntax, especially when I get ragebaited by errors, because for naming convention, you use capital letters for commands. I can easily say SELECT * FROM users; and it feels like I’m shouting at the computer after a long debugging session! OK but apart from jokes, MariaDB is great for storing different types of variables in a table conveniently. I also tend to use phpMyAdmin for a lot of stuff.
• React: I find React to be insane—in a good way—for production and web apps. When I tend to make a web application, I use React a lot. The way you can easily make reusable components instead of copy-pasting HTML markdown over and over simplifies the process a lot for me and for many other developers. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Pair it with a framework like Next.js, and all of a sudden you’ve got a web application with simplified SEO customisation and production.
• TailwindCSS: yet another popular library, and there’s a reason why. With my front-end systems using React a lot, TailwindCSS simplifies things even more with its simple and straightforward CSS classes. Instead of painstakingly having write two properties inside CSS just to get rounded corners, I can use the class rounded-md inside my element and TailwindCSS handles the rest. On top of that, I find the colour palette to be really cool, especially in modern versions like 4+, where I can easily mix CSS variables with Tailwind values. For example, I can use color-neutral-800 or I can write color: var(--color-neutral-800) inside my CSS class. Huge advantage.
• Next.js: When it comes to SEO, I love using Next.js. The way it seamlessly integrates with React, has TailwindCSS pre-installed, and easy async loading with not too much work. Not to mention how it simplifies life with client and server components. You can easily decide what Google should see and what should be more interactive with events and client-side functions. It just makes life easy. However, when it comes to back-end, although I can see that the developers did put a lot of effort into simplifying it, unfortunately JavaScript is simply not built for back-end systems. That’s when I fall back to PHP and use a simple fetch to get the best of both worlds.
• TypeScript: Although it can be a pain to have, to the point of making me rage in some cases, TypeScript helps me prevent critical errors that I would usually find only after I deploy my app. I find some things that do get really complex with TypeScript, particularly with click events, where I occasionally forget which type it is. In other moments, it feels “paranoid” in a good way: what if name is undefined because it’s empty? That alone is a good reminder for me to do a null check to ensure stability in the web application.
• Spotify: come on guys, who codes without music?

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