I would use a CGI based app if I wanted to deploy a front-end to a database

Why? diggemz specifically said "The system is not required to be web capable." - a web based application requires you to jump through hoops to manage state and maintain database connections, and you have a rather impoverished set of controls available. A real GUI client application will have none of the above problems and will (in a well designed program) win in usability terms.

/J\