Ask HN: What are some good no code / low code tools to learn? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are some good no code / low code tools to learn?

26 points_qjt018 comments

I'm an expert software engineer who wants to learn some no code / low code tools so that I can use them as appropriate to build things far more quickly. Which tools or frameworks would you recommend?

How much of no code / low code hype is reality?

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I do not believe the concept of low-code to be hype. It has existed in one form or another since at least the 80s. Lotus Notes, Sharepoint, and finally Salesforce were always the enterprise powerhouses in that arena. And they also show its weaknesses, because they all have taken serious reputation hits due to poor apps written by inexperienced developers. Still, I'd estimate there were dozens, if not hundreds of small low-code apps in every large company I've been a part of, for my entire career.

The bigger question in my mind is quality. Almost all those apps, if they became a success within the business, eventually were given to the professional software folk in IT, who would fix them up and make them really work. At some point, low-code needs to be migrated to high-code.

So for all the smaller and newer players in the space, I have high hopes that some of them will become terrific solutions. But I don't know which of them truly understand the life cycle of a low-code app, nor do I know which of them will still be around in 5 years, so I'm hesitant to put much work into them today.

Interesting, based on this experience, what must-have criteria would you look for in evaluating a tool? Ability to export the code if the tool proves too constraining? What else?

It is not so much about the tool helping a future dev re-invent the solution in a high-code platform. It is more about preventing lock-in. I'd like to see a vendor whose business model embraces the fact that their most successful apps will move to something more powerful. Where they consider themselves to be a stepladder up to a fully developed app, and not a platform that will take over all of enterprise IT. So they would be more of an internal app incubator, not a permanent app hosting platform, focusing on service to their customers, and therefore when it comes time to move on they are a fully engaged partner, not an adversary.

At the same time, it would be terrific to help the devs on low-code platforms avoid mistakes. Flag redundant data, point out when they have written sub-optimal workflows, give them easy ways to implement re-usable code blocks when the system notices they just wrote the same function twice with one parameter change. Data imports are also always a struggle, because most anyone can figure out how to get a CSV or Excel file brought into a system, but reading from a web-based endpoint, or parsing data from Word files tends to be beyond the capacity of most users, even if the system itself supports it.

I run a nocode platform with some large and global applications made/run on our platform.

During architecting phase of the application - we do estimate if nocode tooling will hit a ceiling. If yes then we explore 4 options:

- no brainer, export code and take it from there

- write custom Ui controls and patch them into your nocode tool

- write custom function and patch in the workflow engine or front end logic

- build Ui/UX using external code and use nocode to build backend process and connect front end with apis of the workflows/dbs

- generally complex algorithms - eg route optimization, would become a candidate of converting into a web service and eventually consumed in the nocode tool.

In my experience - One of the core essentials to write an application on nocode is having your sprint 0 dedicated towards a design phase.

I’m a big fan of Anvil[0]. It feels like the right amount of low code, if that makes sense. Abstracts away everything but the core app logic, which you write in Python. So it works well because you get the flexibility of code for the unique logic/behavior while the rest just works.

My company now runs our front-end app on Anvil, works beautifully.

[0] https://anvil.works/

You can find a good database of no-code tools and tutorials at:

https://www.makerpad.co

There is no good database for "low-code" tools. I've collected a whole bunch of "low-code" tools in my notes. So I am planning of creating a database for "low-code" tools (a complement to makerpad). You can follow me on twitter @anton_codes to find out when it launches.

Here are few from my notes:

https://www.8base.com/

https://hasura.io/

https://www.jexia.com/en/

https://www.netlify.com/products/functions/

https://locklock.io/

https://remaketheweb.com/

I stand corrected. Looks like there is a low-code tool db:

https://www.g2.com/categories/low-code-development-platforms...

They also have a no-code tools db

https://www.g2.com/categories/no-code-development-platforms

Learn how to use Google spreadsheets + Sheetsu + Blockspring + ?(or another google sheets integration services) and create amazing applications without much code / time. I use it to organize my finances and do my different stuff and it's quite amazing how much you can do with it. I'd try doing something funky like this, mostly glueing.

Nowadays we have a lot of APIs and services on our disposal and instead we mostly code from the old way and re-write the wheel frequently.

I'm not sure if they're considered code or not but regular expressions are extremely useful.

There is a full industry of developing enterprise software using this low-code platform:

https://www.outsystems.com/

Does webapps and mobile as well

Eclipse OSBP might be what your searching for:

https://www.eclipse.org/osbp/use-cases.html

Top of mind here are a bunch of no-code tools

Bubble.io Adalo.com Airtable Zapier Typeform Parabola Phantombuster

WaveMaker is the low-code platform for developing and modernizing enterprise apps faster than ever before. Accelerate digital transformation efforts across your enterprise with WaveMaker

https://www.wavemaker.com

Salesforce

Good IDE/keyboard shortcuts

Research firm Forrester states that "Low-code platforms make software development ten times faster than traditional methods." The power of low-code is the ground reality and it is not hype.

Zoho Creator will be a perfect low-code platform for you to learn. To abstract away the UI development, so that you get down to application logic rapidly, Zoho Creator provides a drag-and-drop form and page builder. This enables you to create sleek and futuristic user interfaces quickly by simply dragging and dropping the desired page elements.

For implementing your application's algorithms, you can use Creator's workflow builder, and you can harness the power of the Deluge scripting language. Deluge's syntax is very developer-friendly. An expert programmer with a well-designed application logic translated from modular requirements can rapidly deploy and deliver enterprise-grade applications for his clients using Zoho Creator.

You can quickly prototype and deliver applications in hours instead of weeks.

Features offered include a Deluge IDE with built-in error checking, APIs, gesture customization for handhelds, native mobile apps, iOS & Android SDKs, MDM, auto scalability, high reliability, automatic updates, on-premise, and one-click application deployment to web and mobile.

To get started, visit: https://www.zoho.com/creator/ You can check out Creator's developer program here: https://www.zoho.com/creator/developers/

Usually on HN people disclose when they're promoting a company they work for. Otherwise it seems extremely sleazy and/or deceptive.

Microsoft Excel.

Yazz.com

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