Hi, I have a background in pascal & Fortran. Not all that marketable these days I had a forced job change (supporting the code rather than yer actual programming) 2 years ago and I have a feeling that this job will expire early 2012.

I currently work in a small operation and the manager is sympathetic to me introducing some software to improve the tech's data entry. It would also look good on the CV if I was actively programming.

Currently the techs receive work and add their comments to an excel doc when they have processed their hardware. The excel doc also cross references the parts they use for repairs, so I see:

• Database (Mysql?) to hold job and spare part information
• Visual interface to enter the jobs as they come in
• Visual interface for the techs to trace previous activity and update jobs when work is complete

I would like the software to work across platforms. I'll start under linux but the techs have windows computers.

Like I say, I am very much "old school" in my programming knowledge. Is C++ a suitable language for a few simple screens and database updates? If I decided to make the interface web based are there any other languages which make the task easier?

I am really tossing a few ideas up in the air to see what is the best direction.

Web-based makes your life much easier, I'd think ... specially in light
of the need for a GUI.

Personally I'd recommend LAPP (Linux, Apache, PostgreSQL & PHP) for this
kind of task; PHP because it's reasonably easy to use (albeit quite ugly
and riddled w/ idiosyncrasies) and light-weight, and PostgreSQL because it
has less brain dead defaults than MySQL. Takes a little longer to stand up
and get going, but those ten minutes are well spent in the long run ;}


Cheers,
Tink

And for those parts that need to be on the client side, use javascript as time-tested, nearly universal, and reasonably cross-browser compatible. Some knowledge of C/C++ will be helpful, since web scripting languages like php and javascript are very C-like in syntax and structure.

You're going to want to create a database and a website that serves as a user interface for manipulating that database.

For the website, I recommend using a framework that gives you templates for your HTML files, a relational data model for your database, and a MVC-patterned organization. Ruby on Rails was one of the originals. Read through its quick start guide to get a feel for it:

http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html

You will find most of its competition to be similar.