Is low code a dead end? | Hacker News Reader

Is low code a dead end?

9 pointsmberger12 comments

I'm considering specializing in low code applications, like salesforce or dynamics 356. If seems like it's not 'real' Software development and I'll eventually got a dead end in terms of career progression.

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It could be a dead end if you stick with one platform; it's unlikely that one vendor will maintain a strong position for your whole career. But I think "low code" solutions are becoming more prominent and the platforms more complex, and I expect that trend to continue.

In your shoes, I'd ask yourself whether you'd enjoy the day-to-day of the work. Low-code work means closer contact with users and having to deal with a lot more platform history and idiosyncrasy. So it will be more anthropological (on the user side) and archaeological (on the code side) than standalone development. But as long as you're matching the right tool to the job, you'll be able to deliver more to users than when building from scratch.

The problem I see with “low code” solutions is that most of them are dependent on a company to back their product up. If the company ever goes under, so does the product.

There are open source ones. Wordpress is an underrated example. Also Nodered.

I think there is a specific time and place for using low-code solutions or building something yourself.

Using a low-code solution, I find I can build much faster a lot of the time and move onto the next problem. I also feel better knowing that whoever has to maintain that low-code "workflow" will have an easier time figuring it out than reading "normal" code.

On the other hand, depending on the low-code solution, you are beholden to whatever functionality is available to create your solution, which can be really limiting at times.

Power Apps has a lot of hype right now in the old-school business sector (a.k.a. the ones that already have a built-in Microsoft audience). It's not a lot of fun if you have traditional development experience but it can easily pay the bills in a big enough market. Plus it's MS, and they've kept SharePoint around much longer than it deserves to be so it's pretty low risk if you're worried about it disappearing overnight.

I wrote a quick blog post based on this question. Let me know if you have any questions:

https://blog.devnos.com/posts/2022-12-20-lowcode/

Visual Basic is an example of an older "Low Code" solution that was used a lot of applications that were used for years. Low Code will evolve so you have to evolve with them. That said, there will be some widely successful Low Code platforms.

Based on the success of GitHub Co-Pilot and OpenGPT... I would steer clear of specializing in low-code applications. A model that can chat a non-tech person through the creation of low-code type applications is only a training data-set away.

Everything is an eventual dead end but all you need to do is release security updates every 6 months and say that older version are unsupported and insecure. Its a SAAS.

> If seems like it's not 'real' Software development and I'll eventually got a dead end in terms of career progression.

You're right.

Yep, it’s a grift to shill to non-technical management. AI will do what low code promised to do.

It can work really well for business software

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