Where do I start?

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November 17th, 2009, 07:25 PM

Wetmelon

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How to go about designing

Hey all, I'm trying to write a program that will make my life a lot easier for making food! However, I'm not sure what the best way to go about this is. What language would be most flexible? What storage system? (Excel sheets? Access? Other?) Any "best-practice" or other literature would be appreciated

I have experience in SQL, VB, Java/JavaScript, C based, HTML, tiny amount of PHP, if that makes any difference. I am also rather proficient in Excel (Click here for examples)

On the other hand, if there is any freeware out there that will do what I want, feel free to share! (Though of course, it's always fun writing code...

)

Here's the ground rules I've got so far, to give you an idea of what I'm thinking:

Weekly Meal Plan

Objectives & Constraints

Amount to buy each week
- Name (Onions) or (Flour)
- Quantity (3) or (1 bag)
- Should automatically updated based on this week's meal plan
Weekly Meal Plan
- Easily Editable
- Should pull all values & instructions from persistent recipe list for easy use
- Bonus Objective: Retain previous weeks' plans to reuse
- Bonus Objective: Ratings System for each recipe
Persistent Recipe List
- Must retain a list of:
  - Ingredients
  - Quantities

November 24th, 2009, 07:55 AM

Yawmark

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Quote:

What language would be most flexible?

Use a language with which you are familiar and that meets your requirements. "Most flexible" is not a reasonable metric in this case.

Quote:

What storage system?

I'd recommend against tying yourself to the Microsoft Office platform, but that's just me. Maybe an Access database or and Excel workbook implementation is what you want. But that choice should be influenced by your delivery requirements and language choice.

Quote:

Any "best-practice" or other literature would be appreciated

There are more "best practices" books available than you will reasonably be able to read. What you need right now is focus.

Quote:

However, I'm not sure what the best way to go about this is.

It sounds like you have a "Great Idea"™. Those tend to falter when it comes to definition, design, and implementation. The critical step here is to focus your requirements (make sure they are testable) in such a way that you do have some idea how to proceed, be that sourcing your own project or researching available solutions.

~

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Yawmark
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