This is neat but how is it low-code?
Apparently, a programming language itself can't be low-code. I suppose PowerFX is designated as "low-code" because it's intended for use in low-code apps, basically, becoming the "code" part of "low-code".
Power Fx: open-source now available
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Re: Power Fx: open-source now available
#42My non tech users are still catching up with Power Query. I sort of gave up forwarding news related to low code from MS, as every week there's something changing or being deprecated. Moreover, every time I tried to use anything related to the Power Platform (so I could teach to others) I ended up in a world of pain. Is anyone actually using Power Apps, etc... Successfully?
May I suggest your non-tech users to try EasyMorph[1] (I'm the founder)? It's easier than PowerQuery (it's completely no-code) and at the same time more powerful. 80% of PowerQuery capabilities require coding. Our tool is 100% visual (and has a free edition).
Re: Power Fx: open-source now available
#43Who's the user for this? It looks too "dumb" for a "real" programmer, and way too "smart" for everyone else. There's no way a real user will be able to navigate that "formula bar". Source: have observed dozens of regular users through one-way mirror _while at MS_ ~18 years ago. The product later became Dynamics. Users would struggle to find the extremely prominent "OK" button sometimes, or press whichever button was…
yeah, the type of person that would use this would know Python (or JS), in which case they'd want to use that.
I noticed the same thing (technical spreadsheet users) and built Wax[0] to make it easier to build apps on top of Google Sheets.
Re: Power Fx: open-source now available
#44> Natural language support with GPT-3 and no code builders that create Power Fx formulas can lower the bar even further.
GPT-3 is not mentioned again in the announcement. What is exactly is it being used for?
Re: Power Fx: open-source now available
#45Who's the user for this? It looks too "dumb" for a "real" programmer, and way too "smart" for everyone else. There's no way a real user will be able to navigate that "formula bar". Source: have observed dozens of regular users through one-way mirror _while at MS_ ~18 years ago. The product later became Dynamics. Users would struggle to find the extremely prominent "OK" button sometimes, or press whichever button was…
Certainly not someone who can’t or won’t navigate a UI but maybe a motivated regular user. Usually people who are capable scripters but not professional developers.
Re: Power Fx: open-source now available
#46> Natural language support with GPT-3 and no code builders that create Power Fx formulas can lower the bar even further. GPT-3 is not mentioned again in the announcement. What is exactly is it being used for?
It’s being used to generate announcements of open source no-code solutions
Re: Power Fx: open-source now available
#47Who's the user for this? It looks too "dumb" for a "real" programmer, and way too "smart" for everyone else. There's no way a real user will be able to navigate that "formula bar". Source: have observed dozens of regular users through one-way mirror _while at MS_ ~18 years ago. The product later became Dynamics. Users would struggle to find the extremely prominent "OK" button sometimes, or press whichever button was…
It's for advanced Excel users, they basically deal with the complexity of programming, just in their strange way, and I think it's a good way to reduce "Excel abuse".
Kind of like “what would you do for the excel abuse case in an environment not tied down by decades of legacy compat?"
That was my first impression (seeing this for the first time today). In an "all built on top of js" world you might just make a snapshot of the entire stack (except for the "browser substitute") part of the document. Make "open new document" essentially the equivalent of github fork from an ever evolving "the empty document" template. You might see quite an impressive reward from moving fast and breaking things instead of sticking to the paradigm of eternal 20th century compatibility.
Re: Power Fx: open-source now available
#48Gives the same feeling I had when I was a teenager and saw Prolog. I instantly had the idea: "Cool! You can even manage a hotel with that and with a few simple queries find which rooms are available and who is where!". Of course, nobody manages hotels with Prolog.
Re: Power Fx: open-source now available
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my experience/opinion as a programmer, property-bound state tracking (where you say C = A + B, and changing A or B changes C) is easier to understand than push-based updating of C when you change either A or B. Property binding (FRP?) causes the exact set of values dependent on an input to change when the input changes, with no chance to forget (though you can still forget to register a change callback on C). But…
When you want to take different actions, you can use the Stream metaphor (a.k.a. Observables) instead of variable bindings. Streams maintain the same functional reactive execution paradigm of spreadsheets and property bindings, but you can compose several of them into a new stream with complex conditional logic. You can use the streams as event propagators, and understand the program state as a series of successive u…
That's essentially what the "copy formula down the entire column, updating relative references as you go" pattern of Excel abuse does, right? Might be quite interesting to have a UI that takes all the tedious and distracting column-filling from your shoulders but keeps the tabular representation for debug/understanding.
Re: Power Fx: open-source now available
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I too quit playing catch up with MS no code stuff - they change so much That might be different this time, though. Afaik it's the first time Microsoft releases a user-friendly reactive language as open source; all their previous tools in this field have been strictly proprietary. Being open source, it can be maintained by its community of users without becoming abandoned, even if Microsoft loses interest in it.
Open source != Open governance. Consider Signal as an example. It's open-source but there's no developer "community".
This will probably have developer community around it. Given that any one that builds on the platform will be invested in maintaining it and the users will be somewhat technical and the businesses that adopt it will probably put some staff time towards it.