Which software to use to create electronic telephone directory

[tlox]

I would like to know which software/technologies can be used to develop an electronic telephone directory. What database software and application software would you suggest? I just want to create a simple application which could be opened with HTML Help Workshop 1.4. It should not be an online application, however i may modify it in future to accept online updates. Any suggestion is welcome.

[TrustyTony]

You do not need database for simple phone dictionary, but if there is some usefull source of information, where information is always updated, it could be usefull to draw information there to avoid out of sync problems with not up to date info.

Any language can handle it, spreadsheet is quite usable also, but error prone.

I do not however understand connection with the Windows help system and the phone directory. Should the directory be 'live' or static HTML page updated regularly suffices?

[tlox]

Thank you for your response

I was not talking about the windows help system. I mentioned the HTML Help Workshop 1.4 as a software i would like to open the directory with. It is a software used to open/read some e-books. The directory should be static HTML page or application.

If i were to use DB2 or Oracle Database, is it possible to make the directory look like an e-book which could be opened with HTML Help Workshop?

Once more, thank you very much.

[Adak]

Thank you for your response

I was not talking about the windows help system. I mentioned the HTML Help Workshop 1.4 as a software i would like to open the directory with. It is a software used to open/read some e-books. The directory should be static HTML page or application.

If i were to use DB2 or Oracle Database, is it possible to make the directory look like an e-book which could be opened with HTML Help Workshop?

Once more, thank you very much.

You might be thinking of DB2 or Oracle Database, or HTML Help Workshop 1.4 as helpful things to ease the process of making this phone directory, but I disagree. All these things are helpful ONLY if you know how to use them already, which i believe, you do not know.

Therefore, they are going to be obstacles, rather than things that will help you.

The first thing is to study the problem in greater detail. It's one thing to make a telephone directory for less than 100,000 people, and quite another thing to make a directory for 20 million people or more. Scale is important. What is right for one size, will be wrong for another size scale.

Next thing is on line access. How many times a day will this system need to be accessed? Approximately how many updates will need to be done per day? Again, scale is important.

Using C or C++ seems a natural because they are both fast languages, and have compilers for any operating system. With your own program, you can make the user screen look and work like, whatever you want. I would throw HTML Workshop, right out the window, after noting what I liked about their interface. Undoubtedly, from a blank page, you will create an interface that suits you, even better. Maybe not on day #1, but before long.

Remember, you can ALWAYS keep improving your own program. You can not do that with off the shelf software, no matter how badly you want or need to do so.

Personally, I like to program in C, and I love to beat the pants off of the ready made kind of software. Also, I know some DB tricks that are stellar. For me, I'd use a flat (or almost flat), file for up to 100,000 records, and then relent and grudgingly use SQL, for anything larger.

In general, when you are programming a solution, avoid trying to "hop" from stone to stone, (pre made software to pre made software), to get across the stream. Those stones will soon cause you to slip, and fall in the water. Use libraries, and get inspiration for your interface from the pre made software, if you like it. Then build (program), your own footbridge across the stream.

May I ask what this telephone directory is for?