A no-code tool that generates code
compoze.org
compoze.org
"A tool for people who cannot read or write, that generates work emails and policy documents for them"
Sometimes the road ahead is not going anywhere useful.
This is already a workflow that works relatively well in big data stuff - analyst makes a dashboard with some spark queries, which work but are slow and inflexible, data engineer tweaks into a production-ready pipeline and data warehouse view using more professional-level code.
The vast majority of stuff where you just log users in, sell some stuff or subscriptions, and collect payment is already done with tedious identical piles of Django and Rails code anyway.
I guess the problem is that you dont have a competitive moat. It's too easy for your users to just take the code, find their own developers and host it themselves.
I've recently had the idea that the real problem isn't ease of use and effectivity of these tools, but rather that people who don't code just aren't too interested in developing things. After all, if they were, they'd probably also be interested in learning to code. So I'm not too sold on the idea that these kind of tools will one day make developers go out of business.
I think it would be mostly management who would be interested in no code tools. I understand, the allure of not needing a coder, anyone can create an application etc.
But what that basically means that everyone becomes a developer which often ends up in s huge mess. Using no code tools is not much different from writing code. And letting a bunch of unskilled devs loose on your code base is generally stupid.
Business people see these complex problems being solved by code and think that the code is what is complex. They don’t understand that the business logic at the heart of the product is what creates the complexity, and that this complexity is still going to be there even if they use a drag-and-drop interface.
With no-code, those at least go away.
You're no longer having to deal with unnecessary complications of having to learn or deal with WebPack, etc, and you're no longer needing to stay in an endless cycle of dependency hell updates.
Spreadsheets are no-code that works and has been for decades. No-code won’t kill spreadsheets.
I’m convinced that if the entire business world had its way, it would run entirely within an excel spreadsheet.
The problem is that:
A) No code tools rarely provide good guidance as to where that 70/30 split lies.
B) It often takes a good coder to figure out when you've run into this square peg round hole problem and if you use a NCT you probably dont have one to hand and non technical users are SO bad at this (they will often think that they are the problem).
C) No code tools often end up reinventing programming languages really badly to bridge that gap instead of bridging like they should in an effort to keep users on their platform and because designing programming languages badly is fun!
D) As a result, most people not only misrecognize that 30% long tail and misapply the solution.
As a result no code tools have a perpetual allure until they get used on slightly too complex a problem at which point they become uber brittle and everybody starts tearing their hair out.
Sometimes the rigidity of the no code tool is baked in, which is even worse (e.g. like this one's bad mobile UX).
Take this recent experience of mine - I'm helping someone build a teletech system with Twilio. Nothing too crazy, just connecting customers to a service provider. Seems like the perfect candidate for NCT - heck, even Twilio offers their own in-house NCT (Twilio Studio).
I just started building it yesterday and a literal avalanche of questions hit me. What if the call drops? What if the customer isn't happy with the service and wants to speak to someone else? What about (x/y/z) concerns?
Before beginning I would have put this project square in the 70%, but now I'm convinced we're in the 30%.
In my recent experience, the only “low code” solution that may be feasible to non developers will be something like ChatGPT.
I am working on a project now and it does as well as junior developers writing well written, commented logical Python code when you give it your “business requirements” in plain English.
While I wasn’t too surprised that it knew about standard Python libraries that work with xml, Yaml, json, etc., i was surprised that I could tell it:
“Write a Python script that takes an xml file with key and value nodes (I gave it a sample) and given a DynamoDB table with key and value fields, if the key from the XML file has a corresponding key in the DDB table, replace the value node in the XML file with the value field in the DDB table”.
The code worked perfectly.
There is no reason that properly trained model couldn’t create a GUI.
I donnow, but if you're a manager that's dreaming getting rid of expensive developers, my impression so far is that all you're doing is replacing developers with less competent and more expensive "consultants" that need to build solutions with one hand tied behind their backs.
No-code/low-code is useful for shopping lists but complexity skyrockets as soon as you try to step out of its comfort zone.
I'll probably end up eating my words, but so far I'm not worried about no-code/low-code in 2023.
I read it as meaning No Code is not going to replace developers any time soon.
I say this as someone who is building a LCNC product.
You haven’t been able to get away with an interface that doesn’t work well on mobile since at least 2008-2009.
> 100% free to test - on credit card required - pay only for large apps
Should be "NO credit card required"
Here it is : drag&drop Figma-like editor to create SAAS web apps in no time.
Hit the "generate" button and it generates all the source code (React/Typescript/Nodejs/Postgres front, back, APIs, migrations).
What do you think of it ?
Better to just serve a full desktop page or even turn mobile off entirely than deliver something so clearly untested.
Doesn’t instil confidence in the quality of the rest of the product, which is a shame as the landing page is probably the simplest bit technically.
I'll try to be constructive, but this seems to be in a very bare bones state.
1. It needs a widget hierarchy tree. At least because sometimes some widgets completely disappear from view when you move others and then you don't know any more where they've gone to.
2. It needs much better drag&drop. I moved something and after just 2 attempts at dropping it somewhere, everything was messed up beyond salvation. It reminded me of the old Word joke; in the distance, sirens.
3. It needs a much better introduction. Right now you just drop visitors into a basic example with no explanation and there doesn't seem to be any documentation at all. I wouldn't mention this but on the other hand you do have price plans already.
4. Maybe minor, but since you don't mention any browser requirements I'm going to assume it works on any browser. On Firefox there's a fairly problematic thing on the buttons (and other clickable widgets): It looks like you need to click on the button but not on the stuff inside it. Take the Sidebar buttons, the "Users" button is a..
<li>
<div>
<input type="text" value="Users">
5. As others have mentioned, generating code doesn't actually seem to work at all.
I hope this is sarcasm!
Prompt: "I want a SaaS that makes me $10k of passive income per month. The complete source code is..."
Side note: this reminds me of Google AppSheet https://about.appsheet.com/home/ (although not sure if Google's product actually gives you the source code)