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0 pointsmdpye4y ago0 comments

I suspect you are talking at cross purposes. You are suggesting no-code first on a micro timescale. For prototyping. That seems like a solid suggestion and use of resources.

But from the GP, I read a statement on the macro scale. No-code can't codify turn-key pluggable building blocks until the problem spaces of those blocks have been thoroughly explored by code solutions, and a small number of "winning" configurations identified.

Sure, those blocks can be plugged together to prototype "novel" line of business "problems", but I think there's a disconnect in the kind of problem spaces you are talking about.

The "solved" problems that the no-code widgets represent still need to be solved by code first. And expectations continue to move.

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ethbr04y ago

We have a different definition of no-code, I think. I wasn't including any tools that don't offer generic enough primitives to build an arbitrary business process.

If we're reducing no-code to "things that have been written in code first, that can then be plugged together by the no-code user", then we're talking about libraries with a visual designer on top.

eropple4y ago

I think you’re thinking higher level than the other side of this conversation thread? Maybe a better way to describe it is that you couldn’t build something like Retool (which is super cool, I like it) without a lot of prior formative design around CRUD and repeatable consistent model handling even across very different data stores and dealing with double-sent commits and the like.

No-code approaches need to be prescriptive about how they deal with systems and it takes a long time to get to the point where we know how to do that in a way that won’t infuriate people.

ethbr04y ago

I guess here is where "no-code" as a big-tent term breaks down.

Most of the targeted products in the space seem like they can be expressed as "I know how to ___, but I don't want to ___" (f.ex. Retool looks like: write a query, write a UI). Which, yes, trade opinionated design for design time efficiency, which is most of their value.

On the other hand, you also have no-code frameworks which are icons and a designer wrapped around primitives that afford you enough access to control flow and variables to build anything you could code. E.g. Node-RED, UiPath, or Power Automate. Which don't need to be very opinionated, because their entire purpose is to be a build-anything toolbox.

So it's probably more useful to differentiate focused no-code products from general-purpose ones.

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mdpyeOP4y ago

Sure, your no code system can be Turing complete. Lots of things are accidentally Turing complete. But at that point, aren't you just coding with a different interface but all the same problems and complexity? And (as argued already elsewhere in the thread) none of the tools and support...

I agree that "arbitrary business process" is a smaller target. But it's one that grows over time (see GP comment) to include more and more "solved problems" that were solved by lots and lots of code.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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ethbr04y ago

We have a different definition of no-code, I think. I wasn't including any tools that don't offer generic enough primitives to build an arbitrary business process.

If we're reducing no-code to "things that have been written in code first, that can then be plugged together by the no-code user", then we're talking about libraries with a visual designer on top.

eropple4y ago

No-code approaches need to be prescriptive about how they deal with systems and it takes a long time to get to the point where we know how to do that in a way that won’t infuriate people.

ethbr04y ago

I guess here is where "no-code" as a big-tent term breaks down.

So it's probably more useful to differentiate focused no-code products from general-purpose ones.

2 more replies

mdpyeOP4y ago

I agree that "arbitrary business process" is a smaller target. But it's one that grows over time (see GP comment) to include more and more "solved problems" that were solved by lots and lots of code.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse