What you are building
Tableforge is a dbms you assemble in twelve short stages. The teaching stack is JavaFX (Java 17, JavaFX, JDBC, SQLite). By the end you should understand the shell, the data you persist, and the everyday workflows people expect from this kind of app.
A teaching DBMS is a SQL workbench: connections, result grids, and scripts. JavaFX TableView plus JDBC keeps each piece visible.
Split the stage into schema tree, SQL editor, and results. Prepared statements belong in the data layer—not glued to button handlers forever.
Work in order. Early folders are intentionally small so you can see the window (or server) boot before features pile on. From the data-layer part onward, each snapshot should still run after you install dependencies.
Read the goal, clone the matching GitHub folder, run it, then skim the code against the notes below. If something fails, fix the run path first—most “bugs” on day one are the wrong directory or a skipped install.
Parts in order
Each chapter below is one checkpoint. Open a part when you are ready for that feature—not all at once.