Programming for a Compositing environment - Geek Alert!

Hey!
I'm new here as many of you would have already guessed, and i shall say that this is one small but very dedicated forum.
I'm an unsatisfied all-rounder in a small boutique studio in Milan (check the signature), and directing aside i mainly do 3d and compositing work here.
We check Stu's Prolost daily, and i pesonally agree to most of the things said about the state of desktop compositing.
The paradigms we use are so diverse (Layers and nodes) but at the same time so similar that it drives me mad to see how much time i trow away jumping from app to app.
So then, since i had some free time in my hands lately i was starting to develop the concepts of an in house comp application that could handle the majority of the work here (motion graphics, compositing and editing).
Since i'm quite good at scripting my way inside AE i said to myself "heck, why not start coding and application!".
So i begun to lay down on paper data structures and stuff like that, only to find myself with a really neat concept (that addresses most of the problems that Stu mentioned in his posts) but with absolutely nothing to start coding with.
I mean, the last time i wrote an app was a skinning engine for a canvas in delphi in Win95, and i was 18. I'm almost 30 now, and with vista coming, osx that winks around the corner and OGL and DX and linux and multicores and JIT compilers and everything else i'm beginning to feel myself powerless.

So that being said, i wanted to ask the all-powerful Stu about advices on where to start.
I need to be the most tech-DVRebel on the planet, and while i'm in no rush to finish (since it's a solo idea, not fully supported by my studio) and i know my way around the logics of programming (being the almost geek i am) i would like to see something moving on my monitor before becoming a gramps.
I also considered Sourceforge as a viable option, but as good as opensourcing can be it stills scares me to work and manage someone i never saw, even more so if it takes away people's free time. You know, bitchin' girlfriends are a pain in the ever-growing arse of vfx artists Wink

So, Stu, i'm sort of needin advice Smile

You designed the new Looks, and i guess that the R&D crew at the Orphanage took over from there... But you're tech enough to know your way in this kind of things, and we're soo mucho Rebel i couldn't resist asking here.
Maybe some of you in the forum know your stuff as well, so please feel free to say anything Wink

Ok, so thanks for reading this far.

BTW, the book smokes.

Max

p.s. the edit is for attaching the signature... i'm this dumb.

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Max Pareschi | Bonsaininja Studio
http://www.bonsaininja.com
max *at* bonsaininja *dot* com