Treeline (YC W15) Wants to Take the Coding Out of Building a Back End

This looks great! I can imagine this lowering the barrier for building a quick side project significantly. I have a FT job so working outside of that stack means I have to spend a lot of time figuring out configs and other non-business logic related work.

Now a question - say I have a Treeline app that works great for a little side project. But eventually the project grows really big, both in traffic and scope. Is there a way to get off of Treeline (export code?) or do you think Treeline can scale well in this case.

Re: Treeline (YC W15) Wants to Take the Coding Out of Building a Back End

#5

Post by bottled_poe » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 3:24 AM UTC

I've always thought building a web service is the easy bit. In my experience, back end systems fit more closely with a conceptual model than the front end. As soon as things get to the user interface, you have to deal with real world problems, unexpected workflows, interactions, user expectations, variety of platform specifics, etc. To me, UI implementation seems so much harder.

Re: Treeline (YC W15) Wants to Take the Coding Out of Building a Back End

#6

Post by mikermcneil » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 3:26 AM UTC

ernestipark wrote: post #4

particlebanana wrote: post #3

co-founder here if anyone has any questions

This looks great! I can imagine this lowering the barrier for building a quick side project significantly. I have a FT job so working outside of that stack means I have to spend a lot of time figuring out configs and other non-business logic related work. Now a question - say I have a Treeline app that works great for a little side project. But eventually the project grows really big, both in traffic and scope. Is th…

Great question :) code is recompiled in realtime as a node app you can deploy anywhere.

Re: Treeline (YC W15) Wants to Take the Coding Out of Building a Back End

#7

Post by particlebanana » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 3:26 AM UTC

ernestipark wrote: post #4

particlebanana wrote: post #3

co-founder here if anyone has any questions

This looks great! I can imagine this lowering the barrier for building a quick side project significantly. I have a FT job so working outside of that stack means I have to spend a lot of time figuring out configs and other non-business logic related work. Now a question - say I have a Treeline app that works great for a little side project. But eventually the project grows really big, both in traffic and scope. Is th…

You can take the code right now and download it and deploy it to any infrastructure provider you want! We provide a command line tool to sync code down and work locally or to package up and deploy.

Re: Treeline (YC W15) Wants to Take the Coding Out of Building a Back End

#8

Post by sgress454 » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 3:26 AM UTC

ernestipark wrote: post #4

particlebanana wrote: post #3

co-founder here if anyone has any questions

This looks great! I can imagine this lowering the barrier for building a quick side project significantly. I have a FT job so working outside of that stack means I have to spend a lot of time figuring out configs and other non-business logic related work. Now a question - say I have a Treeline app that works great for a little side project. But eventually the project grows really big, both in traffic and scope. Is th…

Treeline compiles your apps to Node.js apps using the SailsJS framework. Your code is available to you at any time via a command-line tool--we offer the hosted version as an added bonus.

Re: Treeline (YC W15) Wants to Take the Coding Out of Building a Back End

#9

Post by mikermcneil » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 3:30 AM UTC

bottled_poe wrote: post #5

I've always thought building a web service is the easy bit. In my experience, back end systems fit more closely with a conceptual model than the front end. As soon as things get to the user interface, you have to deal with real world problems, unexpected workflows, interactions, user expectations, variety of platform specifics, etc. To me, UI implementation seems so much harder.

Agreed- the frontend is where the magic really happens. Our goal is to arm developers like us with a clean, transparent, and secure abstraction layer so we can focus on building awesome user experiences.

Re: Treeline (YC W15) Wants to Take the Coding Out of Building a Back End

#10

Post by sgress454 » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 3:32 AM UTC

bottled_poe wrote: post #5

I've always thought building a web service is the easy bit. In my experience, back end systems fit more closely with a conceptual model than the front end. As soon as things get to the user interface, you have to deal with real world problems, unexpected workflows, interactions, user expectations, variety of platform specifics, etc. To me, UI implementation seems so much harder.

We're essentially in agreement--backend development should be the easy part, but it often ends up being needlessly complicated and broken. So many backend systems are made up of the same basic components, but they end up being rewritten all the time because they don't work well together or are poorly documented. Treeline aims to make that 80% of your app that's always the same and basically automate it for you, leaving you to focus on the creative part (the special sauce that makes your app great).