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I would like to get some ideas on my new project.

Here is some background of myself and the project:

I have been a Oracle Form developer and VB/MSSQL "back-end" developer. Most of my work is in the DB-server side (PL/SQL), and some front-end in winform VB and .NET.

Now I have received a project from a friend of mine to develop a custom application for a Dance studio.

It will be around 6-10 staff on Windows and Mac (and probably Ubuntu in the guest room), and around 100 clients accessing from the web.

Since this is a side project off my regular work, and I have more time for experiment. I would like to learn something new.

Requirement on the "client" side:

"Admin" function (Add class/schedule, record customer purchase, etc)

Financial Reporting (It would be quite basic, nothing too fancy)

For the web front, mainly it is just scheduling a booking and viewing account status, etc

I know I can achieve these in Java/.NET on Mono, etc. Since the size of this application is large I would think an all purpose language would be a nice fit (And unlike my day job, I have time!!).

I have always wanted to try Ruby on Rails, so I guess I would use it for web side.

But for the client-server side, after doing some research on Ruby (WxRuby), the lack of RAD IDE which is hard for me to present the prototype quickly. (Which I use extensively in my day-work to get the real requirement) Is such IDE available?

I am open to other language/framework as well (Python, etc), is there better option I am missing?

Thank you!! :)

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Why does there need to be a native client? Why can't they all use a browser to interface with the app? – Mark Rushakoff Jun 10 at 14:19
They are very used to "rich client" and believe web is less secure (if they password is compromised) – user2470991 Jun 10 at 16:25

closed as not constructive by thorsten müller, gnat, Dynamic, Robert Harvey, Jalayn Jun 10 at 17:07

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