Know your roots! The LBJ Trombone website has undergone some significant changes since its inception. This page highlights those changes and gives you a look at the versions of the past. Just in case you're wondering, these screenshots were taken at a resolution of 1024x768.

Pre-History - Before 1998

This could be considered the granddaddy of the current LBJ Trombone site. This site was created by then-sophomore Michael Cox (who went on to be drum major and graduated in 1999). However, he received a large number of complaints about the site (mostly about his overuse of the word "boner" - trombone+r = tromboner - among other things), and he took the site down. Fortunately, he kept all the files, and when I was making this Evolution page, I remembered that Michael had sent me all of those files when I was in the process of making the new site, so I dug it up and took a screenshot. One thing that he said in his e-mail that I liked was, "Just as bell bottoms were once in style, that was fairly current HTML style in its time." Turns out the last time he updated the page was in 1996, which was also the year when I made my first web page, so I can vouch for him.

Even though I do have the entire site on my computer and could conceivably post it on the web again, I do not wish to draw the same kind of flamemail that Michael did (especially since I have received nothing but praise for this site), so the screenshot will have to do.

Version 1 - Circa Fall 1998

One could say that this was the beginning of the Waldo Era for the website, much like there was a Cox Era when he did the site. I am quite surprised that I uncovered this old (old old old) file when looking through lots of more old files, and so I snapped a picture of it. It was designed to be a temporary site until I spent the time to design a real one. Thus, it was largely white text on a black background. I also remember there being a frame menu on the left, but that file has evidently been deleted since then.

Version 2 - Fall 1998-April 1999

This is a screenshot of the Behind the Scenes page for the first design, and is the only evidence of this version that I have. I wrote this with HotDog, and this was during my time when I thought that WYSIWYG editors (such as FrontPage) sucked. I wrote the code myself, and I ended up leaving off the /TABLE tag on every page, which in turn prevented Netscape users from ever seeing the site (I didn't notice it for a LONG time). You may see a similarity in the page header of this format and the old site - this is because the headers for the second design were actually made for the first design, and I just carried them over.

Version 3 - April 1999-April 2000

After months of unintentionally neglecting the site, I decided it was time to replace the old, dark format. This was the result. I used HotDog to write this too, and switched to a frames interface (easier updating). I still like the way it looks, but it took up a lot of space because each page had its own individual graphic header. I also wanted to exorcise the demon of frames. Just for the heck of it, you can still navigate the old site by going here (please note that I no longer update this version).

Version 4 - Current version

Much like its predecessor, Design #3 fell victim to neglect (but only a smidgen of the neglect of the previous site). I had also used Macromedia Dreamweaver 2 to design a website over the summer, and decided that I would never go back to coding HTML myself again. To put me in even more favor of rebuilding it from scratch, HotDog decided to go haywire (right about when my computer decided to as well), and so I was reduced to using Notepad (still not bad, but didn't have the features that HotDog did). This version will definitely stay around for a while (at least until I neglect it for a few months).