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The term "CRUD application" triggers me, because it is mostly an oversimplification. Technically almost any application can be boiled down to these fundamental

The term "CRUD application" triggers me, because it is mostly an oversimplification. Technically almost any application can be boiled down to these fundamental operations, but this level of abstraction is not very useful to talk about in terms of business value. Only because AI is hyped today means that it could solve any problem, let alone design applications anyone wants to use.

mr_coleman 2y ago
I think of a "CRUD application" as, hopefully, a thin wrapper around simple database transactions with a web front end. They're mind numbing to work on with most tasks boiling down to "add column to database and update the ui". They also tend to be in charge of more MRR than most well funded startups. There is a huge demand for them and if you're good at banging them out, your kids will never go hungry. If anyone is looking for a good business model, write an application that makes it so that Person Type X can manage and access a database easily. There are plenty of examples. Salesforce is CRUD for Sales people. A lot of Oracle's software is CRUD for Industry Y.
- gardenhedge 2y ago
  HN IS CRUD for HNers (Minus the Delete operation)
- thorin 2y ago
  Kind of, but if you've seen people trying to implement a chess game in Oracle Forms or similar you'll know that most people never stop at "a thin wrapper around simple database transactions"... Like systems built in excel or locode alternatives, every CRUD application gets more and more convoluted over time and isn't "just CRUD" very soon after it's created.
  - CRConrad 2y ago
    > every CRUD application gets more and more convoluted over time and isn't "just CRUD" very soon after it's created. I'm guessing tht's in large part because stuff just keeps getting added, with no refactoring / restructuring of the database. If you just keep adding columns (and tables) without refactoring your data model, stuff can easily get convoluted AF without actually needing to; the same funcionality could probably still be "just CRUD" if it were built on top of an appropriate data model. (I may be eaxggerating somewhat, but I think probably pretty much anything could.)
asdev 2y ago
the majority of software is just a bunch of rats nest business logic and CRUD DB ops. hence it's a CRUD app. Queues, microservices etc are all over engineering for no reason

mr_coleman 2y ago

I think of a "CRUD application" as, hopefully, a thin wrapper around simple database transactions with a web front end. They're mind numbing to work on with most tasks boiling down to "add column to database and update the ui". They also tend to be in charge of more MRR than most well funded startups. There is a huge demand for them and if you're good at banging them out, your kids will never go hungry. If anyone is looking for a good business model, write an application that makes it so that Person Type X can manage and access a database easily. There are plenty of examples. Salesforce is CRUD for Sales people. A lot of Oracle's software is CRUD for Industry Y.

gardenhedge 2y ago
HN IS CRUD for HNers (Minus the Delete operation)
thorin 2y ago
Kind of, but if you've seen people trying to implement a chess game in Oracle Forms or similar you'll know that most people never stop at "a thin wrapper around simple database transactions"... Like systems built in excel or locode alternatives, every CRUD application gets more and more convoluted over time and isn't "just CRUD" very soon after it's created.
- CRConrad 2y ago
  > every CRUD application gets more and more convoluted over time and isn't "just CRUD" very soon after it's created. I'm guessing tht's in large part because stuff just keeps getting added, with no refactoring / restructuring of the database. If you just keep adding columns (and tables) without refactoring your data model, stuff can easily get convoluted AF without actually needing to; the same funcionality could probably still be "just CRUD" if it were built on top of an appropriate data model. (I may be eaxggerating somewhat, but I think probably pretty much anything could.)

asdev 2y ago

the majority of software is just a bunch of rats nest business logic and CRUD DB ops. hence it's a CRUD app. Queues, microservices etc are all over engineering for no reason