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I think any discussion about no-code/low-code and if it's effective has to take into account Unreal Blueprints. Game development is full of inherently complex p

by ehnto 4y ago

I think any discussion about no-code/low-code and if it's effective has to take into account Unreal Blueprints. Game development is full of inherently complex problems, but some people are able to pull it off with Blueprints. What's important about that though, is that Blueprints live inside a complex codebase focused on game development, so the graphical/node based toolbox you have is extremely powerful because developers have coded those blocks and tools for you. The majority of the engine is abstracted away. So it might be that node based programming is a good way to allow non-devs to interact with parts of an otherwise code based solution, inside niches. Examples that come to mind are eCommerce shopping rules. They can be complex, and really arbitrary, and in many ways having a developer implement them is really inefficient. Giving a node based pipeline editor for shopping cart rules would be a boon for power-users and take time off the dev's hands to focus on implementing the surrounding ecommerce solution, something you definitely don't want to be writing in a graphical editor.

danielvaughn 4y ago
I almost put in my original comment that no-code/low-code becomes more useful as it gets more specific to a domain. Game dev is a perfect example - building complex shaders becomes much easier with a visual editing tool. I think of Google Sheets as a highly useful tool in this space. Same for Google Data Studio.
- basch 4y ago
  Isn't the domain of most no-code/low-code "business process"? It's some glue between systems to collect or input data. It allows the expert on the business process to directly translate the manual process without others.
  - fendy3002 4y ago
    I think no, since usually the condition for each Business process state is usually complex, which no code / low code won't help much and is usually worse on performance compared to native implementation.
  - happimess 4y ago
    That's right, but "business process" is a much larger solution space than "texture shaders for video games."
yourapostasy 4y ago
Low-/no-code environments are really great for exposing domain-specific landscapes to non-coders, but that significantly reduces the hype value of the lingo, which aims to convince buyers that they can replace those pesky non-specific domain problem spaces and coders with capex and a smidge of opex. The value proposition of these products is the same as before because this is a repackaging of fourth-generation languages, and the economics have not changed. The more narrow the domain, the easier it gets to figure out a low-/no-code environment that will work for the users. But the smaller the base of purchases. And distilling the complexity to just the right level still takes some really bright domain experts with extremely good intuition of where the most profitable use cases lay (the hardest role to fill) and highly empathetic coders (also hard to fill) who work well together (extremely rare), or a single person who embodies both (unicorn). If energy and money were no object, low-/no-code is absolutely A Thing. I believe there is some kind of emergent Shannon–Hartley theorem behavior here, where complexity down a communications network with certain noise/bandwidth/etc. properties has some suspected hard physics-as-we-know-it limits.

by ehnto 4y ago

danielvaughn 4y ago

I almost put in my original comment that no-code/low-code becomes more useful as it gets more specific to a domain. Game dev is a perfect example - building complex shaders becomes much easier with a visual editing tool. I think of Google Sheets as a highly useful tool in this space. Same for Google Data Studio.

basch 4y ago
Isn't the domain of most no-code/low-code "business process"? It's some glue between systems to collect or input data. It allows the expert on the business process to directly translate the manual process without others.
- fendy3002 4y ago
  I think no, since usually the condition for each Business process state is usually complex, which no code / low code won't help much and is usually worse on performance compared to native implementation.
- happimess 4y ago
  That's right, but "business process" is a much larger solution space than "texture shaders for video games."

yourapostasy 4y ago

Low-/no-code environments are really great for exposing domain-specific landscapes to non-coders, but that significantly reduces the hype value of the lingo, which aims to convince buyers that they can replace those pesky non-specific domain problem spaces and coders with capex and a smidge of opex. The value proposition of these products is the same as before because this is a repackaging of fourth-generation languages, and the economics have not changed. The more narrow the domain, the easier it gets to figure out a low-/no-code environment that will work for the users. But the smaller the base of purchases. And distilling the complexity to just the right level still takes some really bright domain experts with extremely good intuition of where the most profitable use cases lay (the hardest role to fill) and highly empathetic coders (also hard to fill) who work well together (extremely rare), or a single person who embodies both (unicorn). If energy and money were no object, low-/no-code is absolutely A Thing. I believe there is some kind of emergent Shannon–Hartley theorem behavior here, where complexity down a communications network with certain noise/bandwidth/etc. properties has some suspected hard physics-as-we-know-it limits.