phpmyadmin is actually very simple to set up - a simple configuration file to tell it what server info is, and then launch it via a URL - i had thought the same thing a few years back when i first got into hacking
VB / UBB's but once installed - it is very staright forward.
if the mysql data base is local you could also take a look at MySQL CC - it is not suppored any more but it lets you change fields by clicking on them mySQL Query Browser is nice as well as long as you know what queries to run where,