Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement?

#21

Post by recursivedoubts » Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

Nocode has its place, and the problem area it can reasonably address will grow over time, but at the end of the day good automation requires the same thing any other software system requires: complex logic and, therefore, tests.

Code is going to be the most efficient way to express and verify that logic.

Re: Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement?

#22

Post by bdavisx » Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

Someday it might happen, but the problem is being specific enough:

https://i.redd.it/s140v80nmc561.png

Re: Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement?

#23

Post by sysadm1n » Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

I asked this a few hours ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29187754

Here's my take, quoted from my thread:

I've slowly started appreciating the nocode / low-code movement. At first: I thought it was a lazy person's dream, but more and more I realize a lot of the low hanging fruit that you can do with code has been done and there's little left to make. I mean, why bother re-invent the wheel right? So now I just leverage software made by other people typically GUIs / point-and-click tools and a bunch of online services to automate burdensome tasks.

I still write simple one-liner helper scripts in my free time though, typically userscripts that I place into Tampermonkey/Violentmonkey to automate a bunch of stuff and make the web more accessible. I call this 'low code' so I'm not entirely reliant on GUIs.

What's your thought on the movement? Do you like the term 'nocode'?

Re: Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement?

#24

Post by dagw » Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

I have a relative who's been programming since forever (although he would never call himself a programmer), and he talks about the first time he saw FORTRAN IV. Finally there was a language where you didn't have to be a programmer or know about computers to use. You just typed in what you wanted the computer to do and it did it. You could solve your own problems without having to wait for the programmers to do it for you. So clearly the desire to get "programming" out of the exclusive domain of programmers is hardly a new thing.

Re: Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement?

#25

Post by nicebill8 » Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 3:46 PM UTC

As a programmer, I've got a love for code but I have to accept that this is going to be the future for 90% of consumer-facing apps. The most common abstractions for the most common use-cases are already built and they're going to stay that way in my opinion. Once the "hard thinking" work is done building these abstractions, it's just a matter of connecting the dots to bring a product to market in . While there's been no-code tools for a long time (Yahoo pipes being my earliest memory) there's no doubt they're improving every day.

I think in a few years (decades?), "developer" and "programmer" will mean something very different that they do today.

Re: Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement?

#26

Post by thrower123 » Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 3:47 PM UTC

It's always been a pipe dream. I wish that people would invest more into making decent real SDKs for full developers to use instead of chasing this fantasy that you're going to be able to solve all your problems by gluing pre-made lego blocks together.

What invariably happens is that somebody gets a bee in their ear about some silver-bullet low-code tool, and tries to use it. They maybe get a few simple work-flows to work. Then they try to start doing more complex things, and it falls apart rapidly. Then more requirements are foisted onto the low-code platform, and developers get dragged in to try to build integrations into it and new custom components for it. Usually this is unbelievably awful to do.

Eventually you have developers having to maintain this awful Rube Goldberg machine of crap that they didn't want to be involved in,

Re: Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement?

#27

Post by hunterb123 » Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 3:48 PM UTC

Like most things in SV, people get hung up on the term.

I like the tools coming out. UX designers, Airtable, etc. I don't view it as nocode, simply as developer and business tools.

Re: Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement?

#28

Post by DantesKite » Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 3:50 PM UTC

No-code is just a synonym for “software”.

Re: Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement?

#29

Post by ucosty » Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

I'm still not sure what difference is between 'no-code' and just using software. If I create a workflow in Jira I wouldn't say I'm creating no-code software, I'd describe that as just 'using' or 'managing' Jira.

Re: Ask HN: What do you think about the no-code movement?

#30

Post by wai1234 » Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

As has been pointed out already, this is yet another round of an old paradigm. Just like every other shortcut (looking at you, frameworks) it comes down to LEGOs (or Minecraft). As long as you are satisfied with blocks world, they are great. As soon as you need a curved surface or a different color, you are out of luck. There's also that detail that someone has to write all that code so you don't have to.