Spot on! My day job has a consistent history of this but refuse to understand why we can't keep top talent.

Completely agree with the article, thank you. In our particular case direct db access is the appropriate solution.

Why is hitting the tables directly an issue?

A startup script is not the answer on a server, IMO. Having a server operating system that needs to automatically login, which btw has credentials not encrypted in the registry, is bad practice. Also having this particular app start as a service causes an issue when a second instance of it is opened up. Been there done that. The "front end" part of it is literally a text box showing output from the warehousing equipment and a few buttons to change quantities in the db.

I see you're on voat too! Thanks again for pitching in.