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Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

#51

Post by bostonsre »

sbacic wrote: post #28

I think that the whole discussion around low-code is missing a pretty fundamental issue: most programming libraries suck. If I need, say, authentication, why do I need to install a library and then read a bunch of documentation on how to use it? Why can't I simply plug it in (just like low-code!) and have it automatically work? I think there is a lot of room to improve developer tooling and that the effort spent ther…

I think libraries are complicated so that they can be flexible and support many different use cases. You could release one library for authentication that works for one specific use case, but it would be useless for all others.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

#52

Post by tluyben2 »

bostonsre wrote: post #51
sbacic wrote: post #28

I think that the whole discussion around low-code is missing a pretty fundamental issue: most programming libraries suck. If I need, say, authentication, why do I need to install a library and then read a bunch of documentation on how to use it? Why can't I simply plug it in (just like low-code!) and have it automatically work? I think there is a lot of room to improve developer tooling and that the effort spent ther…

I think libraries are complicated so that they can be flexible and support many different use cases. You could release one library for authentication that works for one specific use case, but it would be useless for all others.

As far as I have seen, so far in my career, this is all 'not invented here' stuff. Most things, like auth go from 'oh no mate, we need 10000x more complicated stuff, that Keycloak thing will never fit!' and then, 6 months later there is something like keycloak but worse, far less features, more complex but replacable in no time by keycloak without touching the keycloak (no customizing) sourcecode. But we cannot because we now invested 6000 hours into it. So now it is ours and we will continue to say it is very complicated and so nothing fits our complicated use case.

Alternatively, tell me your complicated auth flows that will not have users running away screaming and are, therefor, bad ideas and should be replaced by cookie cutter stuff. Because that is where all of these things end up.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

#53

Post by talolard »

gervwyk wrote: post #46
nyellin wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried out Lowdefy recently and it was too much yaml so in the end I just wrote my app with Vue and Buetfy. If you had a visual editor that was good I would have used and paid for that.

This is interesting feedback. Thank you! I would love to ask you a few questions about this, if you do not mind, please reach out gvw[at]lowdefy.com A visual editor is definitely on our roadmap. Our strategy is to make the schema easy to read, write and understand. We want to ensure the dev experience of working with the Lowdefy schema is first class so that change review and version control can be as productive as p…

I made a dev tool into a small business. Came hear to rant: invest in ui upfront. At the end, customers visit your site and you have very little time to make them go wow. Your spending a lot of attention capital when you don’t have much

Re: Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

#54

Post by nyellin »

gervwyk wrote: post #46
nyellin wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried out Lowdefy recently and it was too much yaml so in the end I just wrote my app with Vue and Buetfy. If you had a visual editor that was good I would have used and paid for that.

This is interesting feedback. Thank you! I would love to ask you a few questions about this, if you do not mind, please reach out gvw[at]lowdefy.com A visual editor is definitely on our roadmap. Our strategy is to make the schema easy to read, write and understand. We want to ensure the dev experience of working with the Lowdefy schema is first class so that change review and version control can be as productive as p…

Sure, emailed

Re: Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

#55

Post by nyellin »

talolard wrote: post #53
gervwyk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is interesting feedback. Thank you! I would love to ask you a few questions about this, if you do not mind, please reach out gvw[at]lowdefy.com A visual editor is definitely on our roadmap. Our strategy is to make the schema easy to read, write and understand. We want to ensure the dev experience of working with the Lowdefy schema is first class so that change review and version control can be as productive as p…

I made a dev tool into a small business. Came hear to rant: invest in ui upfront. At the end, customers visit your site and you have very little time to make them go wow. Your spending a lot of attention capital when you don’t have much

Can you elaborate on what type of devtool you built?

I'm founder of a startup that develops DevOps tooling and we're debating how early to build out the ui. (We have the basics down with Vue like I mentioned.)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

#56

Post by sbacic »

bostonsre wrote: post #51
sbacic wrote: post #28

I think that the whole discussion around low-code is missing a pretty fundamental issue: most programming libraries suck. If I need, say, authentication, why do I need to install a library and then read a bunch of documentation on how to use it? Why can't I simply plug it in (just like low-code!) and have it automatically work? I think there is a lot of room to improve developer tooling and that the effort spent ther…

I think libraries are complicated so that they can be flexible and support many different use cases. You could release one library for authentication that works for one specific use case, but it would be useless for all others.

I'm not sure I buy into it - I don't think it's necessary that even simple use cases need to be complicated in order for the whole to be flexible.

The simple use cases should just be plug and play. If you want a different solution: here are the tools, here is the documentation, have fun.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

#57

Post by tluyben2 »

nyellin wrote: post #44
gervwyk wrote: post #42

We are! We started Lowdefy [0], co-founder here shameless plug, by building apps for customers. Our model is to build their back-office apps for them with no up-font dev charge, we just agree on a monthly fee. This monthly fee includes any changes and reporting in the future at no additional charge, as long as the scope remains the same. And they own the data in their database of choice. The model is not perfect and…

I tried out Lowdefy recently and it was too much yaml so in the end I just wrote my app with Vue and Buetfy. If you had a visual editor that was good I would have used and paid for that.

Too much yaml is interesting: it hides a lot (a lot) of plumbing: what did you find easier with Vue besides 'control'?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

#58

Post by sli »

nyellin wrote: post #55
talolard wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made a dev tool into a small business. Came hear to rant: invest in ui upfront. At the end, customers visit your site and you have very little time to make them go wow. Your spending a lot of attention capital when you don’t have much

Can you elaborate on what type of devtool you built? I'm founder of a startup that develops DevOps tooling and we're debating how early to build out the ui. (We have the basics down with Vue like I mentioned.)

I can't speak for the GP, but I personally find editing code in my IDE to be a smoother and more productive process than editing any type of serialization or markup format like YAML (or JSON, or RON, or EDN to a bit lesser extent). This is most likely due to me being so used to being on the other side of those formats, or generating them with code in the first place, and not necessarily because one is "better." My IDE setups will reflect that preference, which in turn makes it stronger.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

#59

Post by tluyben2 »

mikewarot wrote: post #41

Do VB6 and Delphi count as low code tools? If so, there are tons of people out there who got lots of things done with them 20 years ago. Everything starts as low code, but complexity always creeps in. It's like Factorio, the code will grow.

I was (well, not sure, have not tried recently) a very experienced Delphi coder and if it is low code or not depends on your VCL palette. Most would not be: you could drag and drop screens fast but it took a lot of code beyond the very basics. However, there were a few, especially Russian and Ukraine VCL libs which had you just mess around with Properties and that was enough to create pretty complex applications. Most companies I worked with did not allow and/or wanted to pay for those.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone built a business with no-code tools?

#60

Post by harrisreynolds »

We are building packages around WeBase [1]. As an example we have a solution for small businesses/startups that includes a website/forms/email lists etc all in one... here's a site using this solution: https://www.sbaloanshq.com/

Lots of opportunity with these tools and platforms!

[1] https://www.webase.com

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