I am currently building this vision with AliaJS (platform engineering tool), where the solid base for the platform will be ERPNext, I agree with the author, we can be flexible on solid bases, it just needs to be more open (not SAP) so we can iterate faster.
Malleable software = solid bases and custom code
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Re: Malleable software = solid bases and custom code
#12It is so hard to predict the future, of all things. But I think there is another approach which is already tried and tested - frameworks.
I think frameworks would mutate to be agentic - they'll come with skills and documentation targeted to LLM agents, and they'll have far more breadth than anything we've seen, a certain lack of restraint, and will sacrifice composability and orthogonality because they are no longer useful for agents.
The framework I'm building - plug: https://sapporta.com - brings in a set of UI choices (datagrids for every table) and a set of API choices (everything exposed to agents) which is not typical to classical frameworks. If you're building database applications, it contains most of the things that a typical NoCode tool would have, but with complete code and the ability for agents to build upon it.
I think Sapporta is one of the first frameworks with this point of view, but it has only been a few months since Opus 4.8, and I think in the coming months we'll see a lot more vertically integrated horizontal frameworks (the solid base) that can get us malleable software with custom code.
Re: Malleable software = solid bases and custom code
#13Why should we believe someone who was so extraordinarily wrong about no-code before?
It doesn't matter if someone predicted some event, if they did it for the wrong reasons.
Opposite is true as well, it matters more the way one reaches the conclusion, than the conclusion itself.
Of course there are pragmatic exceptions to this, but still
Re: Malleable software = solid bases and custom code
#14I am currently building this vision with AliaJS (platform engineering tool), where the solid base for the platform will be ERPNext, I agree with the author, we can be flexible on solid bases, it just needs to be more open (not SAP) so we can iterate faster.
ERPNext (Frappe) is absolutely brilliant. My only complaint was that it is in Python and is a bit heavy weight (setup etc) for quick prototyping.
They call a table definition - that defines a table at both the SQL level, and at the domain level - a DocType (see: https://docs.frappe.io/framework/user/en/basics/doctypes). When you declare a DocType you immediately get a working table, foreign keys transformed into combo boxes for lookups, forms, and a whole set of conveniences that are common to ERP-like applications.
Before seeing ERPNext I would've thought that such a declarative approach would fail to satisfy the critical remaining 20% of most requirements, but they've built around it in a way that has enabled them to ship a complex ERP system that thousands of businesses of different shapes use. I think it is one of those gems that are not in popular conscience among software engineers, compared to regular frameworks (but very much so in business-ERP adjacent circles), and is worth learning from.
Re: Malleable software = solid bases and custom code
#15So... The prediction is exactly what people have been doing since the turn of the century?
I put high odds on this one being correct.
Re: Malleable software = solid bases and custom code
#16[flagged]
Re: Malleable software = solid bases and custom code
#17This is awesome, I have been working on some home software for my family and have a similar homegrown setup! Very cool to see this and ideas in this direction.
Re: Malleable software = solid bases and custom code
#18- this is one of the reasons i am building a semi deterministic production grade express backend generator https://ibb.co/dz6gQgB
- the idea is that config is deterministic at the lowest layers and managed by template engines
- business logic is powered by AI at the highest level
- the harness is the config, the project structure
- there are some insanely unique things about this project
- for starters, the dependencies auto update themselves so that you get to scaffold the latest version of eslint, biome, pg or whatever you want at all times
- all the commits are granular so that you can reorder, rebase, combine them in any order and even branch off and remove commits meaning the final project will have 500 commits instead of a 1 commit with 40000 changes like how 99% of the github templates do
- i am focused on a vertical instead of a broad set of solutions for all sorts of frameworks like pick the ones used by 80% of the people
- fully customizable semi deterministic production grade app is generated with tests run inside docker and you get a working project with 500 things set up right at point 0 before it even goes to the AI agent
Re: Malleable software = solid bases and custom code
#19[dead]
Re: Malleable software = solid bases and custom code
#20Sidenote, but what's with the ref=mdubakov.me query parameter attached to every link? Are there benefits of this over the "Referer" HTTP header other than trying to skirt around my configuration choice not to share my browsing history?