If you have the inclination to learn python, I would definitely recommend it. Python is a very powerful language and is a pleasure to learn since it is interpretive. I.e. you can type a command in and immediately see the results. Having said this however, most of our customers use our application and don't even know that it is written in python.

We do not provide the source code for the main part of the application. However, we provide a facility called custom override which enables users to override any part of the core system using custom stubs. If you look in the c:\program files\jlogbook\custom directory, you will see examples of this. This gives us and our customers the best of both worlds. We are currently enhancing this ability to make it even more user friendly. If you go to http://www.sjsoft.com/technicalpapers/override.htm , you will see our preliminary design document on this subject. Not all of these features have been implemented but we have been using the core features for quite a while. We would be happy to trial an actual requirement with you if you want to test this out.

In addition, our new version 5 (not released yet) will give you the ability to create custom reports using a web server concept. In this version, you will be able to create an application using an ordinary html editor and then connect to the web server to get and store the data. Again, here, if you want to tweak the portal, you are welcome to since we will provide the top layer of the portal as source code to you (again it is in python).