Although you are a single developer I would consider using a Methodology for your development.
When you are working alone on a Product you will have to take up several roles to keep an overview.
I would recommend to use the RUP-Process.
It is an agile development approach which can be used be small or bigger groups. Although you are working alone you will profit from this methodology as it will make your Implementation easier. You can adapt the methodology to your needs and decide what is necessary or not for you.
The RUP-Process consitst of 4 Phases.
Inception:
In This Phase you are gathering all Requirements. Which means that you write down what you actually want to do before you start coding. Coding directly will quickly limit your creativity as you will soon encounter errors and forget what you actually want because you have to fix one problem. Take a week or two and write down everything you expect from your application. What it has to deliver or what could be a plus (in the next release for example).
Elaboration:
First you make the architectonial decisions. What db will you use. What language etc. Then you start coding. You are coding arround 80% of your application, leaving the hard stuff out at first. In this Phase you should finish the main parts of the GUI and have bindings to the methods used by the GUI. They do not have to be finished.
Construction
Now you tackle all Programming problems left and all the little errors which you have left out in the Elaboration Phase. It might be that you encouter new requirements. Estimate how long it would take you to add them in this release. You can then decide if you want to finish it or save it for the next inception phase. You should also finish all comments for the methods in your application.
Transition
Now you are Testing the Product before delivery and fix the last errors. Also you should be writing a Documentation of what you have implementet. If you have writting something down in the Inception it should not be to hard for you to write documentation.
When finished you can start another Cycle again starting with the inception.
CONS:
- It might be an overhead having a methodology for only one developer
- You might get annoyed
PROS
- You will have good requirements
- Your Development Process will be faster because you do not have to reconsider your next steps while developing. You have done that in the inception
- You will have a good documentation of what you have built
- You can build a timeline and predict when you will be finished
- You can predict what will be finished with this realease
- If you need help you can give parts to other developers. You are prepared if you need help at somepoint.
At the moment I am the only developer in a Project. With this Methodolgy we can keep track of the process and it helps to coordinate my tasks.
You should also definitly use GIT to secure your process.
UPDATE
Planning of the Architecture/Software itself.
First you should check where you want to use the Software. There are numerous possiblities.
a. Web Applications
b. Mac/Windows
c. Iphone/Android etc.
The first thing you have to decide is where is the Software to be used. If you use it on a Mac or Iphone you could work with Apples new Language Swift
If you work on Windows you could use C#
The Andvantages of these languages are that they are optimized for the System and will deliver you more possibilities then Java or C++.
Now this is only one example. If you need a really fast program, where you can do a lot of optimization on the lower Level you could use C++.
If you want an application that you can theoretically use on both System you could use Java. Although from my experience you will have to do lots of modifactions if you want to publish it on multiple Plattforms.
Your coding skills are also important. It depends on what you can code and what your are willing to learn. Each programming Language is optimized for a porpouse. Python, Javascript, Lisp etc. are also really great languages. It depends on what you need.
First Step
Decide the field of operation --> choose the fitting Language
Second Step
Decide if database is needed.
If you have a simple program you may not need a Database. However databases are a great way to perserve data and offer a lot of functionalities.
For local Applications you could use SQLite. It is a simple Lightweight Database which can be accesed from any language.
If you need more database featueres. Make a research on what the databases offer and which one you need.
Third Step
Start building the Application (a skeleton) and test if your Architecture is durable. You may still change your architecture at this point if you encouter that it is to complex.
I will give you a short example for an app:
You want to build an application that sorts all your Mp3-Files in playlists. Basically a better player then Itunes. But you would want it on multiple Systems.
First Step
- File handling (complexity low)
- Multiple Systems (complexity high)
-> node-webkit
You can build cross plattform Applications with node webkit where you can Access folder etcs. The Corresponding programming language would be Javascript while using HTML5,CSS,Jquery etc.
Second Step
In order to organize the MP3s you will need a database. You will only load the links to the files in your folder so the complexity of entries and the load on the database is low. You can use a SQLite DB here. You could use node-sqlite3 whith your app.
Third Step
Build a scratch application in which you can upload a file or load a file in a folder. See if you setting is working. If yes continue with the building of your app. If no start from Step one and decide whats missing.
