Original Post
Hello fellow developers, I've pretty much taught myself how to program. Just recently, I finished my first game, a break through clone. It went fairly well and was a great learning experience. Now, I'd like to do something a little more practical in terms of a career. I've worked as a release engineer and a test engineer, but I'd love to be able to get into programming. Actually, I'd love to be able to get into anything right now. I've been out of the field for almost four years after going back to school for a little while. I'm having a terrible time finding a job, and I still don't have my degree. Although I'd love to get my degree first, I simply can't go to school right now and really want to get back into my field. Anyways, I've rambled too long and it's time to get to the point. I'd like to write a database program. I was thinking something along the lines of a project tracker. It would keep to ToDos, deadlines, notes, feature request, and possibly bugs. I know there are tons of programs out there to do these things, but I thought it would be a good learning experience into databases. My problem, is how to get started. There really isn't anything in my books on databases, and very little if there is. What is a real-world way to approach this? Do I use mySQL or excel or something else? What API is best for connecting to databases? Do I use ODBC or something else? I'd like to use something practical that might look good on a resume. Any and all opinions are welcome, including advice on getting back into the computer field. Thank you very much, Jayson Bailey