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by pcowans 4793 days ago
So what is your background? It seems like you have experience doing something technical, even if it isn't professional software engineering. Do you feel you could code up a workable implementation of your network simulation in Python which could be encapsulated as a component of a larger system using a mix of technologies? Separating things out into modules for which you can (in theory) implement using different stacks is generally a good idea in any case.
1 comments
wjnc 4793 days ago
Experience mostly in econometric and financial modelling + dabbling in code for fun.

The workable implementation pretty soon baffles me on the database side. Basically all I know is from flat data file or database upwards. I really can't implement a system of cards that is expandable on-the-fly.

The modular approach is a good suggestion. It's what I got from the Trello stack post as well [1].

But I'm still looking for a good heuristic to get those modules in place (perhaps without someone extra on board).

[1] http://blog.fogcreek.com/the-trello-tech-stack/

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pcowans 4793 days ago
Okay, cool - so it seems like you do actually have quite a specific piece of technology missing, but it also seems to me that this is an architecture / technical design problem rather than just needing someone to code it up. It also seems that it's pretty core to what you're trying to do, which to me suggests that you really need a find a way for yourself or someone with a long terms stake in the project to own this piece.

If you were able to encapsulate that part of you product (the simulation and associated data store), would you feel comfortable architecting the rest of the system (whatever that is - web interface, associated company website, etc.) and bringing someone else on board as a contractor using fairly standard technology (e.g. Rails / Django)? If you could do that it'd free you up to focus on learning the bits which really matter.

Putting my two cents in technically, the way you're describing this makes me think that it's not necessarily a good fit for a traditional RDBMS - 'hundreds' of tables of fields strikes me as an unconventional way to use these technologies, but I don't know enough about the problem you're solving to suggest what might be more appropriate.

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