a friend of mine wants to create a simple inventory database that can be deployed on the web.
He has had a lot of experience with Database tools like Paradox. Moreover he has experience with writing Macros and programs with Basic, and even a bit of C++ experience. He uses Windows and Mac OS X, though mostly Windows.
If the requirement of having a web application wasn’t there I would recommend MS Access.
Currently I see these options:
A) Ruby on Rails
Pros:
- easy to start out (even on Windows?!)
- at least from a programmers point of view perfect to create simple CRUD applications
- can be deployed at virtually every popular Cloud hoster
- I could easily assist if there were problems
Cons
- ActiveRecord is from my point of view too technical
- Designing forms requires ability to fiddle around with CSS and HTML
B) VB.Net
Pros
- he has experience with simliar programming languages
- easy to create forms and possible to deploy CRUD apps on the web
Cons
- can be deployed only at few hosters (only Azure?)
- simple problems can be quite difficult to solve in VisualBasic
C) Cold Fusion, …?!
Pros/Cons
- I have no idea
I am happy to hear about your suggestions.
Thanks, Philip
I have yet to use it, but the http://www.force.com/ platform (which salesforce.com is built upon I guess) is supposed to make it easy to develop data driven apps for more like business analyst roles. There is a cost to host it, but one app isn’t that much on a monthly basis and the 30 day free trial would let you figure out if it worked for you or not.