4 ms·

Pipe Dreams – The life and times of Yahoo Pipes (2023)

144 points by twalichiewicz 9mo ago

ChrisArchitect 9mo ago
Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38650878 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38650878
postatic 9mo ago
Absolutely loved Yahoo Pipes. Created my own last year - https://www.mashups.io https://www.mashups.io
- jschrf 9mo ago
  Very nice! Love the clean UI.
- Natfan 9mo ago
  cool! self-hostable?
tangoalpha 9mo ago
Pipes was ahead of its time. Built a scraper and aggregator back in 2008-2010, fetching content from over 2000 sources, pumping all of it into a Drupal website. The amount of regex transformations and other things I had in that pipeline - is in hindsight - more complex, larger scale, and more convoluted that any other nifi or airflow pipelines I built later in my career. And all of it was free. What was possible was limited only by one's creativity!
- AceJohnny2 9mo ago
  > And all of it was free. It's important to take the perspective that the Silicon Valley isn't an incubator of technology, but of business models. Yahoo Pipes being free is exactly what killed them. Without a sustainable business model, they could not last.
robertheadley 9mo ago
I miss Yahoo Pipes every day of my life.
- ManuelKiessling 9mo ago
  Isn‘t n8n a substitute of sorts?
- Towaway69 9mo ago
  What about Node-RED?
dbacar 9mo ago
There was some other tool also, I guess called Dapper. A similar experience is Apache Nifi for the curious.
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
hermitcrab 9mo ago
It is surely only a matter of time until someone says 'yes, but node based editors are crap, you should do everything in code'. This has been discussed ad nauseum in HN, so I have tried to summarise the arguments here: https://successfulsoftware.net/2024/01/16/visual-vs-text-based-programming-which-is-better/ https://successfulsoftware.net/2024/01/16/visual-vs-text-bas...
- nylonstrung 9mo ago
  I actually like node based editors but LLMs are the nail in the coffin. Visual programming just doesn't make sense in a world where "low-code" users can safely be assumed to be using llms
  - hermitcrab 9mo ago
    I expect I can drag and drop nodes to solve a problem faster than you can vibe-code a solution. Plus a node-based solution is likely to be more maintainable if your aren't a coder.
  - Closi 9mo ago
    Let's see! I'm actually working on a node-based programming LLM paradigm for an app I'm building. The idea is that you can write the 'nodes' in plain english rather than pre-written blocks, and then the arrows indicate the flow but don't need to absolutely encode everything (closer to a flow chart). The process of writing the flow chart helps define and document the business logic, and the flows are totally clear because everything is encoded into a state machine.
    - hermitcrab 9mo ago
      I am unconvinced that natural language is the best way to describe a data transformation problem.
      - Closi 9mo ago
        My personal sense is business logic which involves processes with lots of steps rather than data transformation. I’m unconvinced that code is the best way to describe business logic, so here we are! :) (Code is probably the best way to encode business logic, but most users can’t read it or edit it, which makes it bad)
davemo 9mo ago
I was an avid user of Pipes and blogged a bit about the experience of using it to build an aggregated set of feeds from various employee blogs to feed into our company site back in 2009 [0]. It holds a special place in my memory alongside early internet greats like del.icio.us [1] - [0] https://blog.davemo.com/posts/2009-04-06-yahoo-pipes-at-vendasta.html https://blog.davemo.com/posts/2009-04-06-yahoo-pipes-at-vend... - [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_(website) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_(website)
- nosrepa 9mo ago
  Man I miss delicious
croisillon 9mo ago
related: December 2023 - 129 comments - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38650878 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38650878
tombert 9mo ago
I'm surprised I hadn't heard of Pipes. I do a fair amount with n8n now, and this feels like n8n way way way before. I generally hate the term "ahead of its time", but I think this might apply.
sporkxrocket 9mo ago
That's a wildly self-indulgent and navel gazing post with more name dropping than you would think for a barely used product.
ronbenton 9mo ago
Reminds me of an early form of IFTTT

144 points by twalichiewicz 9mo ago

ChrisArchitect 9mo ago

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38650878 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38650878

postatic 9mo ago

Absolutely loved Yahoo Pipes. Created my own last year - https://www.mashups.io https://www.mashups.io

jschrf 9mo ago
Very nice! Love the clean UI.
Natfan 9mo ago
cool! self-hostable?

tangoalpha 9mo ago

Pipes was ahead of its time. Built a scraper and aggregator back in 2008-2010, fetching content from over 2000 sources, pumping all of it into a Drupal website. The amount of regex transformations and other things I had in that pipeline - is in hindsight - more complex, larger scale, and more convoluted that any other nifi or airflow pipelines I built later in my career. And all of it was free. What was possible was limited only by one's creativity!

AceJohnny2 9mo ago
> And all of it was free. It's important to take the perspective that the Silicon Valley isn't an incubator of technology, but of business models. Yahoo Pipes being free is exactly what killed them. Without a sustainable business model, they could not last.

robertheadley 9mo ago

I miss Yahoo Pipes every day of my life.

ManuelKiessling 9mo ago
Isn‘t n8n a substitute of sorts?
Towaway69 9mo ago
What about Node-RED?

dbacar 9mo ago

There was some other tool also, I guess called Dapper. A similar experience is Apache Nifi for the curious.

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

hermitcrab 9mo ago

It is surely only a matter of time until someone says 'yes, but node based editors are crap, you should do everything in code'. This has been discussed ad nauseum in HN, so I have tried to summarise the arguments here: https://successfulsoftware.net/2024/01/16/visual-vs-text-based-programming-which-is-better/ https://successfulsoftware.net/2024/01/16/visual-vs-text-bas...

nylonstrung 9mo ago
I actually like node based editors but LLMs are the nail in the coffin. Visual programming just doesn't make sense in a world where "low-code" users can safely be assumed to be using llms
- hermitcrab 9mo ago
  I expect I can drag and drop nodes to solve a problem faster than you can vibe-code a solution. Plus a node-based solution is likely to be more maintainable if your aren't a coder.
- Closi 9mo ago
  Let's see! I'm actually working on a node-based programming LLM paradigm for an app I'm building. The idea is that you can write the 'nodes' in plain english rather than pre-written blocks, and then the arrows indicate the flow but don't need to absolutely encode everything (closer to a flow chart). The process of writing the flow chart helps define and document the business logic, and the flows are totally clear because everything is encoded into a state machine.
  - hermitcrab 9mo ago
    I am unconvinced that natural language is the best way to describe a data transformation problem.
    - Closi 9mo ago
      My personal sense is business logic which involves processes with lots of steps rather than data transformation. I’m unconvinced that code is the best way to describe business logic, so here we are! :) (Code is probably the best way to encode business logic, but most users can’t read it or edit it, which makes it bad)

davemo 9mo ago

I was an avid user of Pipes and blogged a bit about the experience of using it to build an aggregated set of feeds from various employee blogs to feed into our company site back in 2009 [0]. It holds a special place in my memory alongside early internet greats like del.icio.us [1] - [0] https://blog.davemo.com/posts/2009-04-06-yahoo-pipes-at-vendasta.html https://blog.davemo.com/posts/2009-04-06-yahoo-pipes-at-vend... - [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_(website) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_(website)

nosrepa 9mo ago
Man I miss delicious

croisillon 9mo ago

related: December 2023 - 129 comments - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38650878 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38650878

tombert 9mo ago

I'm surprised I hadn't heard of Pipes. I do a fair amount with n8n now, and this feels like n8n way way way before. I generally hate the term "ahead of its time", but I think this might apply.

sporkxrocket 9mo ago

That's a wildly self-indulgent and navel gazing post with more name dropping than you would think for a barely used product.

ronbenton 9mo ago

Reminds me of an early form of IFTTT