Chapter 5: Building an Application
In This Chapter
Emphasizing top-down design
Engaging in bottom-up coding
Putting your work to the test
Fixing the bugs
Retesting everything
In Book V, Chapter 4, I take the idea of a database system for the Oregon Lunar Society (OLS) from an entity-relationship (ER) model to a relational model to a relational database. Just as important as the database itself is the user interface. If users can’t get the information they need out of the database, the database isn’t of much value. For a simple application such as the one that the OLS needs, after you’ve designed the user interface, for all intents and purposes you’ve designed the whole application. So because the database itself is done, all that’s left is designing the user interface and connecting it to the database.
To make sure that you don’t miss anything important, consider the project as a whole. Imagine that you’re looking down on the project from 20,000 feet. This way, you view not only the ...
