31. A stored program computer, comprising: a central processor and a memory; and in said memory, a computer-executable interface program for providing a graphical user interface to a computer database manager program, the interface program comprising: a graphic painter being programmed to allow an applications programmer to tailor associations between columns of a database table managed by said database manager program and associated editing styles, without access to source code of said interface program; each editing style specifying a display format and screen display position for data of the associated column, said graphic painter being programmed to allow said applications programmer to manipulate graphical figures on a display screen of a computer and thereby specify said column/style associations in correspondence to said graphical figures; the editing styles tailorable by said applications programmer further comprising extended column definitions of display characteristics for data of corresponding columns of said database table beyond those characteristics inherent in a data dictionary of said database table; a graphical user interface component programmed to provide said graphical user interface and allow a user to manipulate data of said database table, the behavior and appearance of said graphical user interface being determined by said column/style associations with said extended column definitions, said graphical user interface component being programmed to generate and issue commands to said database manager program to direct said database manager program to read data from and write data to said database table, said commands being determined in accordance with said column/style associations and in response to requests entered to said graphical user interface component by said user.
31. A stored program computer, comprising: a central processor and a memory; and in said memory, a computer-executable interface program for providing a graphical user interface to a computer database manager program, the interface program comprising: a graphic painter being programmed to allow an applications programmer to tailor associations between columns of a database table managed by said database manager program and associated editing styles, without access to source code of said interface program; each editing style specifying a display format and screen display position for data of the associated column, said graphic painter being programmed to allow said applications programmer to manipulate graphical figures on a display screen of a computer and thereby specify said column/style associations in correspondence to said graphical figures; the editing styles tailorable by said applications programmer further comprising extended column definitions of display characteristics for data of corresponding columns of said database table beyond those characteristics inherent in a data dictionary of said database table; a graphical user interface component programmed to provide said graphical user interface and allow a user to manipulate data of said database table, the behavior and appearance of said graphical user interface being determined by said column/style associations with said extended column definitions, said graphical user interface component being programmed to generate and issue commands to said database manager program to direct said database manager program to read data from and write data to said database table, said commands being determined in accordance with said column/style associations and in response to requests entered to said graphical user interface component by said user. 37. The stored program computer of claim 31 wherein: said column/style associations specify whether or not retrieved data of the associated columns are modifiable.