Ask HN: Do you like the term 'nocode'? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you like the term 'nocode'?

7 pointssysadm1n4 comments

I've slowly started appreciating the nocode / low-code movement. At first: I thought it was a lazy person's dream, but more and more I realize a lot of the low hanging fruit that you can do with code has been done and there's little left to make. I mean, why bother re-invent the wheel right? So now I just leverage software made by other people typically GUIs / point-and-click tools and a bunch of online services to automate burdensome tasks.

I still write simple one-liner helper scripts in my free time though, typically userscripts that I place into Tampermonkey/Violentmonkey to automate a bunch of stuff and make the web more accessible. I call this 'low code' so I'm not entirely reliant on GUIs.

What's your thought on the movement? Do you like the term 'nocode'?

I'm not here to cast aspersions, because I know for a fact that there are people who have built more impressive software with no-code than I ever will, but I kinda wince when I hear the phrase. Code is code, and whether you choose to interact with it directly or not is your personal prerogative. However, there will come a point when you have to debug something that requires you to get down-and-dirty with a shell. Eventually, you're going to want to build that module that $COMPANY_NAME refuses to build for you. In this sense, no-coders actively put themselves at a disadvantage when they refuse to interact with code. The size of that disadvantage varies wildly, but it will almost always be there.

Don't mind it. But as an end-user, "nocode" doesn't mean "easy" and as long as that's understood by all parties, then it's as nice as the "nocode tool" is.

It's close enough. I would probably go the scenic route to describe Zapier etc but I wouldn't pitch a fit over someone using the term.

I know what it means, they know what it means. Communication has succeeded.

It's like serverless, not truly serverless but conveys the gist.

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