In my constant strive to under promise and over deliver I'm looking to make a .Net tool to create simple .Net applications that the non-programmer superiors can use. How would I go about writing and compiling the code?
Explanation of intent: I want my superiors to, rather than ask me to make a barcode label app, select a few options, do a few test prints and then have the application created and ready to reuse. But how do I go about writing the output application for them to reuse on other machines?
Also, is this a terrible idea or have some merit?
Edit: To all those suggesting configurability over my original question: all the apps we release for internal use are being used by essentially day labor and my superiors prefer the applications to be static and unconfigurable. That being said, some of our apps haven't changed in 5 or 6 years because they were made to the specifications required. In the last few weeks they have requested 2 new barcode apps with a third requested in passing.
This is possible, although it is a lot of work.
I haven't tried this myself, but I'll told the easiest way to create such a application (technically knows as a "Domain Specific Language"), is to start with some dynamic language (such a IronPython or Boo) and build your language on top of it (Dynamic languages let you add new commands)
I friend of mine, who goes by the name of Ayende Rahien, even wrote a book about doing exactly that: "DSLs in Boo: Domain Specific Languages in .NET"