I'm imterested in coding a custom built application for me and my dad.
What programming languages do you know?
All you've mentioned is Matlab. We can't read your mind, and all we know about you and your skills is what you tell us.
Basically we have the catalog in txt files and image files. We just want to compile them in any way we'd like; pdf, html, or LaTeX.
I'm not sure what you mean.
Are you describing the behavior of the book-catalog program itself? That is, the book-catalog program works by converting txt and image files into different formats (PDF, HTML, or LaTeX), but has no other behaviors or responsibilities, such as displaying the catalog or interacting with the user.
It's important to provide a clear and complete description of what the program should do. We can't read your mind, we can't see the files on your disk, we only know what you tell us about your goals for the program.
And if we want to use another OS in the future I could port it while keeping the txt and image database intact.
How important is portability? Is it something you'd be willing to sacrifice, say, for ease or speed of development?
For example, if it takes about two weeks to write a non-portable program, or 4 months to write a portable one, which would you rather do?