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Show HN: Alan – a low-code application platform

alan-platform.com

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Re: Show HN: Alan – a low-code application platform

#113

Post by blobwalker »

Serow225 wrote: post #105
klageveen wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it could. We find in practice that it's easier to just have a server running "somewhere" (locally if you have the resources) and push applications to it. But if the feedback shows that the first-run experience needs to improve that's definitely an area we would be looking at.

My experience has been that it's valuable to have an easy way to spin up a local server/runtime stack, for a wide variety of reasons.

I agree. I think people would be far more likely to try it out if you could kick off a dev server from the CLI without having to fire up any extra processes.

Re: Show HN: Alan – a low-code application platform

#118

Post by maxsilver »

klageveen wrote: post #89
ccleve wrote: post #86

I've long thought that this is the way applications should be built. 90% of what we do as app developers could be automated away. This looks really promising. That having been said, I'd like to echo some of the other comments here. You need better docs. As an app developer, I want to see some things right away: 1. What's the server written in? Can I see the code? It isn't clear which of your Github repos contain the…

Thanks for the feedback, this is exactly what we're looking for here. Perhaps some of this is "how to launch a platform 101", but we can't guess all the concerns everyone may have. Also, we're not necessarily looking to really kick start adoption for a wide audience right now. The platform lacks maturity on a number of levels to properly support that. We'll continue to work on our documentation and clarify some of th…

> We understand people want to see the UI, but it's not the key selling point. Pretty apps isn't what you'd use Alan for (although you could).

In my humble opinion, I would suggest rethinking this.

I imagine you don't intend to sound that way, but a response like this might suggest to people that you don't value user experience or good design, which would rule a lot of otherwise-interested people right out. For any serious project, how it looks and how it feels is every bit as important as how it functions. (Even for B2B or internal-only needs, this regularly remains true).

If I can't build a gorgeous, industry-leading well designed app in Alan, then there needs to be clear information about how I would do that outside of Alan while using your platform. Otherwise, Alan is just for disposable apps / throw-away apps / Excel-replacement apps, and for any serious work, I'm eventually going to have to rewrite the whole app in something else anyway so I might as well start there first.

Re: Show HN: Alan – a low-code application platform

#120

Post by dmitriid »

klageveen wrote: post #89
ccleve wrote: post #86

I've long thought that this is the way applications should be built. 90% of what we do as app developers could be automated away. This looks really promising. That having been said, I'd like to echo some of the other comments here. You need better docs. As an app developer, I want to see some things right away: 1. What's the server written in? Can I see the code? It isn't clear which of your Github repos contain the…

Thanks for the feedback, this is exactly what we're looking for here. Perhaps some of this is "how to launch a platform 101", but we can't guess all the concerns everyone may have. Also, we're not necessarily looking to really kick start adoption for a wide audience right now. The platform lacks maturity on a number of levels to properly support that. We'll continue to work on our documentation and clarify some of th…

> We understand people want to see the UI, but it's not the key selling point. Pretty apps isn't what you'd use Alan for

And yet,

> This makes it ideal for administrative tools and data gathering > Solutions built with Alan include everything from small accounting systems you can build in an afternoon, to large ERP solutions.

I really pity the users of those systems then.

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