fabou78

Hi all,

I have really low exprerience in programing and would like to have some advise on how to start a little project I have. My purpose here is to start with the right tools in from the beginning. I apologise if this long but I wanted to give a clear idea of what I want.

I want to write an QCM like application that will read all questions and answers from a database. I remember that I had tried one year ago with Visual C# express with a standalone DB but it was quite difficult to get it working as you have to write everything, even when I managed to have all data field from the DB displayed correctly in my application I came across some issue where modifying the data using the application that I had written would not update the database file in certain occasions (don't remember exactly in what particular case).

I have also some experience with PHP and MySQL ( I have developed some simple web-based application in the past) and I find that the management of the database is much more easier when using tools like MySQL-Yog or PHPMyAdmin.

The good advantage of a standalone application is that you don't have to worry about installing a DB server but on the other hand you loose a lot of DB functions like export, import data, backup restore etc... Unless I am wrong about the DB functionality provided with Visual C#

So here are the questions..

1. Can I still give a try at C# with standalone is there any tools making it easy to handle DBs in standalone mode?

2. Maybe I can still go Visual C# in standalone but building the DB apart, and when the DB is ready export it as a file that Visual C# can use? (I don't remember what was the file extension used at the time hen I gave it a try).

3. If it's too difficult with standalone I guess I can write something in C# linked to an external MySQL DB that way I can use some DB tools I know already? (but I will always have to have an DB server installed and running somewhere)

4. I am planning after doing this QCM application to start learning game programming, I understand that C++ is the language most used for game programming so instead of continuing learning Visual C# should I not start directly with Visual C++?

Thanks for your advices... I not affraid of learning and work so don't hesistate to suggest other tools that I didn't mention in this post

Regards,

Fabou

ReggaetonKing

Write a stand-alone application in C# that reads a local XML file. You won't have to worry about any database management, installation, connections, etc.

There's a lot of game development tools and libraries that work with C#. It is nice due to its own memory management and fast execution time for a non-native language.

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CoderGuru

I didn't read this whole post, only his reply, but it was a situation I was in before. What I ended up doing was using SQLite for my database management because it was only a single DLL I had to distribute with the app and it worked flawlessly. Again I havn't read over what you needed, but one limitation is only one thing can write to it at once. If you have an extremely high traffic application with dozens of people writing to the same file, this would not be ideal, but then again XML will have the same exact issue.

If u think this is an option u might like u can find the .net SQL lite drivers at: http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/

You simply install them and then use SQL lite in your datasets just like you would SQL Express. It is extremely nice. I also use http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser/ to edit / modify my SQL Database file. It's surely no SQL Server Manager but it does do get the job done.

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fabou78

Thanks both for your inputs,

I know nothing about XML and and I will dig into it, I never though you could do that with it (I mean database stuff)

SQLlite is also really attractive and will more likely require less time to investigate.

I think I will test both of them and see which one suit me the best.

As for C++ I will stick to it because I have read that C++ is portable to Linux but C# is a Microsoft stuff only.

Cheers,

Fabou

CoderGuru

C# can be compiled on unix/mac too using MONO, but in the long run C++ will give u a better understanding probably.

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fabou78

I am a bit confused already the link you provided is this what they refer to a wrapper or library? I have done some search and foud those links..

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/CppSQLite.aspx
http://www.alhem.net/sql_cpp_tutorial/index.html

Are they all doing the same thing, I guess if your suggestion is .NET it might be more integrated to Visual C++ Express so I should go for it then...

SqLite seems indeed more apropriate to what I am looking for.

Cheers,

Fabou

DaWei

XML has its place, but it isn't a panacea. It's like paying 100,000 a year for someone to manage your 125,000 yearly investment.

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squills

I have used borland builder c++ or delphi to make a standalone application that uses a db, it has options to edit , add , check, serach everything you would need.
cheers
squills

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