Show HN: Kretes – Build full-stack applications in TypeScript and PostgreSQL

Hey HN, author here. Kretes is a tool for building full-stack applications in TypeScript and PostgreSQL with a goal to provide an integrated, battery-included and open-source solution for web development. It combines a web framework - similar to Rails, Django or Laravel - with a UI being built on top of the VS Code editor. It comes with a (eventually large) standard library of built-in modules that are developed in a coherent way e.g. authentication, authorization, admin panel [1] etc.<p>This project explores the ideas introduced by the Self programming language and aims to bring them to the current age. The ultimate goal is to create a semi-visual tool for building web apps in a more intuitive way using just one programming language - TypeScript - on the client &amp; on the server, and without the accidental complexity.<p>The project started as a way to arrange my knowledge around JavaScript. Inspired by the past, I decided to replicate to some extend what Sun Microsystems did in ’95 with the Self programming language (a project I find underrated and ahead of its time), but using modern, popular tools such as JavaScript&#x2F;TypeScript, VS Code, WebAssembly, PostgreSQL, etc.<p>The project is in early alpha stage with the bus factor of (strong) 1. :)<p>Happy to answer any questions here or at oh@zaiste.net*<p><i>PS. I’m creating a todo app using Kretes on YouTube [2] to explain the bigger picture of building full-stack applications. IMHO it’s good to have a general understanding of how web applications work </i>before* specializing in front-end or back-end - that’s the goal for this video series, and for Kretes.<p>[1] not yet public<p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=rLAElFkRrWI&amp;list=PLhXZp00uXBk5hnHEIAFl74mZyLrVKKJAD" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=rLAElFkRrWI&amp;list=PLhXZp00uXB...</a>

This project looks very useful. Since you compare it to Django and mention it has batteries included i have a few questions I&#x27;d like to ask.<p>Does it include an autogenerated admin page like Django?<p>Does it handle database migrations?<p>You mention both Vue and React in your page, does that mean I have to install either of them manually or does the cli handle that?<p>What are the limitations of the query builder?<p>I can&#x27;t test anything right now and the docs page looks a bit bad on my phone. Also the examples page is broken and returns an error.

Why does this depend on both Reactjs and Vuejs aren&#x27;t they essentially the same thing?

Congrats!<p>I see that Kretes uses Sqorn [1] for talking to the database.<p>I really like the looks of Sqorn, however iiuc, it doesn&#x27;t support typescript right?<p>How does that piece work?<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;sqorn&#x2F;sqorn" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;sqorn&#x2F;sqorn</a>

Sounds very promising. I try it out tonight.<p>I&#x27;m always wondering people are not interested in powerful interactive development environments anymore. Like those environments for Smalltalk and Common Lisp. Modern development sucks.<p>I hope there would be more things like this.

I&#x27;d be interested in contributing to this project. I&#x27;m going to poke around the codebase and see if there&#x27;s anything I&#x27;d be able to help with. Reply if you have anything in mind!

The choice of both Tailwind and Postgraphile makes me want to throw up. The two things are on the top of my hyped techs list. They&#x27;re geared toward PERSONAL productivity at the expense of maintainable styles and good API design, respectively.<p>Nestjs has been around or a while and support a ton of tranports not just graphql btw.