little red hen needs help

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Feb 2, 2014 at 08:18 AM

andyjim wrote:
>Speaking as a non-programmer, I nonetheless wonder if it may not be as
>difficult to implement as it sounds. Seems to me the underlying
>structures may be fairly straightforward database stuff (but I’m
>not a database guy either!).

From my (limited) understanding of database management systems, I believe that the basic infrastructure should indeed not be too hard to build. But such systems won’t allow you to alter the structure on-the-fly, e.g. create new fields while you are entering data.

Most importantly though, if my understanding of modern IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) is correct, the toughest part should be the minimalist interface. There’s a reason that, e.g., .net applications look and feel quite similar. They are based on building blocks which include most aspects of the interface, including windows, buttons, menu behaviour etc. So creating your own kind of interface—with the kind of functionality you want—may require that you delve deeper into more ‘primitive’ programming languages and environments. The caveat here is that you are not building a simple wordprocessor, like Q10, but a relational database application.

In other respects, the concept you suggest reminds me of the Constructive Application Philosophy Application http://crpa.co/CRPA-Software-Screenshots.htm
Ron C. de Weijze, CRPA’s developer, is first and foremost a philosopher, and taught himself programming in order to create the application he had in mind.