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Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

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Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#51

Post by [deleted] »

justaguyhere wrote: post #19
alexashka wrote: post #10

This is like a movie you know 2 minutes in, is going to be a complete disaster, give it another 5 minutes and finally turn it off. You stumble upon it's imbd page some time later to discover it has a 3/10 rating and nobody went to see it. I don't see a single innovative idea in this product and I see plenty that's worse than the experience I had in Dreamweaver in year 2000.

This looks similar to Airtable, except Airtable UI seems nicer. Airtable is a Billion dollar company, tons of people are happily using it. I am no fan of Amazon, but I do not think it is as bad as you describe. Even if it is half as good as Airtable, this will take off, simply because of Amazon's weight behind it.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#52

Post by lucasverra »

ixtli wrote: post #41

I focused a bit on the history of computing when i was getting my CS degree and one of the things I've found super interesting is that for at least forty years (perhaps longer!) we've been at least academically interested in writing code "without writing code". It never really works, however for a technical person it can be a great way to do, like, a sketch. https://hn.algolia.com/?q=without+writing+code is an intere…

im genuinely asking myself if "this time is different".

The merging of Cloud + Software consumerism of 15 (ish) years of mobile + software eats world can make the Bubbles, Airtable and other no/low code tools the next long tail revolution of software ?

What is different from the front page + Dreamweaver + flash days ?

My hint : cloud computing and the hosting of database AND logic in bigcorp maintained garden

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#53

Post by syshum »

So far I have yet to see a real practical use for no code, they all seem great in the demo's and get alot of hype but at the end of the day they take far more resources to maintain than a normal app and you end up having to have a programmer maintain after the end user quickly exceeds their ability to develop anything in a no code enviroment.

They either get Flustered and end up back in Excel, or the "app" gets handed off to IT / Development who get frustrated and start a project to rewrite in a actual programming environment

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#54

Post by martythemaniak »

Funny tangent: I spent my internship (16 months between 3rd and 4th years) building Web 2.0 apps that were essentially implementing flows people were using on top of Word/Excel+Email. It was good work and people were happy to have a nice dedicated web app instead of their clunky flows.

After about a year I noticed I was basically doing the same thing over and over again, so I decided to make an app that makes web apps! I could build any app in my app! Awesome! I spent 4th year building this awesome tool out - there was a document editor to create your forms, there was a Visio-like flow editor that could make decisions, take actions (email to that person, fill in that field, send to branch 2 if that checkbox was checked etc). After a few months I eagerly applied to YC (for summer 2007) and... nothing. Turns out I couldn't actually describe wtf I was doing and pg would rather fund Heroku. Good call!

Anyway, there were other similar companies back then (Coghead) that went nowhere, but this concept keep on popping up and AirTable seems to have caught on. I guess someone at Amazon got tired of writing the same apps over and over again.

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#55

Post by odshoifsdhfs »

VRay wrote: post #39
odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #34

I am working on a product in this space. I think pretty much all the 'no code' apps that are coming out have taken the wrong approach to it. No matter what, they are still 'designed' by programmers with a programming mentality. This will lead to a sort of failure as people will feel limited when using it, and a 'non programmer' mentality looks at this and goes wtf? For example: > =Filter(Tasks,"Tasks[Done] % ORDER BY…

Yeah, man, this looks like a beefed-up version of Excel macros Anyone who can write working spreadsheet macros could probably just learn to actually program. Maybe they aren't going to be making the next RTX Voice or proving P=NP, but I'll bet they could crank out some CRUD

I did a lot of customer interviews. And I mean a lot.

People that are good at using Excel (as in, not just create a table with data, but know how to use it, do macros, pivots, etc), if the need arrives they just move up the chain to Access/Filemaker. I would say Excel is their gateway drug to coding. Maybe now they will move to Honeycode perhaps (if the UI is ok)

The ones that can't use Excel past putting =A1+A2*0.2 can't use most of the no code tools. But they can use a more visual approach to programming. This is the market I believe will/is exploding as more and more, pretty much everything requires a computer/app, but the customisation for each specific case isn't there. They require a more Lego like approach to 'software' development. For me, that is the NO-CODE definition.

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#57

Post by odshoifsdhfs »

themodelplumber wrote: post #36
odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #34

I am working on a product in this space. I think pretty much all the 'no code' apps that are coming out have taken the wrong approach to it. No matter what, they are still 'designed' by programmers with a programming mentality. This will lead to a sort of failure as people will feel limited when using it, and a 'non programmer' mentality looks at this and goes wtf? For example: > =Filter(Tasks,"Tasks[Done] % ORDER BY…

I like what you're saying. Would just add that if my mother and father are the audience, I fear your solution would be unfairly docked a couple stars just for existing online and in software form. They would much prefer that any app exist as the result of a 10-minute phone call. ;-)

Care to explain? I didn't fully understand.

You mean they prefer to call someone for 10 minutes and pay them to build the app? Or a recommendation to use an existing app?

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#59

Post by ilaksh »

Its weird to me that people in here keep saying this looks like a competitor to [a single specific recent product X] when in fact this type of system has been an entire very popular product category for decades, and there are literally thousands of systems like it. Of course not all of those thousands of systems have become extremely popular or have the same scope or are contemporary.

For example: Access, Salesforce, WordPress, Tableau, 10000 other ones that never became really popular including the simple one I made ten years ago for a client.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-code_development_platfor...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth-generation_programmin...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_application_developmen...

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#60

Post by jedieaston »

VRay wrote: post #39
odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #34

I am working on a product in this space. I think pretty much all the 'no code' apps that are coming out have taken the wrong approach to it. No matter what, they are still 'designed' by programmers with a programming mentality. This will lead to a sort of failure as people will feel limited when using it, and a 'non programmer' mentality looks at this and goes wtf? For example: > =Filter(Tasks,"Tasks[Done] % ORDER BY…

Yeah, man, this looks like a beefed-up version of Excel macros Anyone who can write working spreadsheet macros could probably just learn to actually program. Maybe they aren't going to be making the next RTX Voice or proving P=NP, but I'll bet they could crank out some CRUD

Deploying the CRUD securely is a problem, though. Things like this and AirTable are entirely managed by their developers and your IT department, and Excel sheets can just be dropped into an email. If I write a cool python script, how is the rest of my team supposed to use it if none of us are developers and haven’t done it before, and with IT probably trying to stop me?
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