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Ask HN: Do engineers like the term low-code?

8 points by rishabhkaul1 ↗ HN
Hey ve been wondering if engineers genuinely like the term “low code”?

Or is it something they might scowl at like “digital transformation”.

20 comments

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PaulHoule
"Model Driven Architecture" is trademarked so they can't use that.
maxrev17
Don't swim against the buzz-word tide!!!! (I think it's known as sales/marketing?)
rishabhkaul1
Yea, nothing excites engineers more than some of that sales and marketing sprinkle haha! But on a serious note, I get what you mean. Once a term becomes an overarching theme for a set of tools, becomes hard to change the perception.
d--b
Nope... it’s unclear where the code is low.

It usually means “that has a shitty DSL”.

giantg2
It depends. I would call Splunk and Tableau low code. I think they did a good job. I think many other products tend to screw it up.

So I don't think I have any opinion on "low code", but would evaluate the product on a case by case basis.

dyingkneepad
I had to duck-duck-go it to figure out what it means. After reading the first description I kept thinking on things like Wordpress blogs or Delphi or Excel. Does any of these qualify as low code?
rishabhkaul1
It could. Basically low code is referring to tools that require some amount of code, but not as much as making an entire application from scratch.

For example, my startup Appsmith.com, helps developers make internal tools by connecting to datasources and not worry too much about the frontend/UI components. And then they can use JS to make these UI widgets to interact with the data.

thiago_fm
I like it, even though I never use it.

I write complex distributed applications, but wish my life would be easier. I don't care about having my job forever nor fear innovation. Anyhow, I think it might take a while until low code or no code becomes a thing on what I do, but I deeply believe in a future that doctors, engineers and everybody will use those tools to build amazing things, or cure really hard diseases, or whatever people might invent.

I think we are living in an awesome time and I love to hear about it, how clever some low code or no code are, and how it empowers people.

el_dev_hell
I find "low code" much more palatable than “digital transformation”, but I still wish the concept had a better name and clearer borders (e.g do most people consider Excel low code?).

I don't have a better name to offer, so I have no major gripes with low code.

rishabhkaul1
Yea I think there's a sub bifurcation I see, between low code and no code. So basic excel by itself is probably no code and then once you add things like macros etc, it might become low code. But yes, its tricky.
muzani
A term is a term. We've lived with worse, like "master-slave" and "male/female connector". As long as it's clear what it does and isn't vague like "dependency injection".
BuenosAir
What is the problem with male/female connector ? What is the generalized replacement words ?
muzani
Nothing wrong. Nor is there anything wrong with "low code". Just the visual of putting a male into a female is a little crude.
bad_good_guy
Crude? The same terminology used to describe plant morphology? Don't project your own views please
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quickthrower2
dependency injection is specific enough for me. it's just saying that anything a class depends on is provided to the class (injected) rather than created by the class itself.
quickthrower2
I like it. Does what it says on the tin. It might get diluted though (how low is low?).

For example AWS Lambda is low-code in a way. You only need to write the code for the function, not the server or scaling. But that might not be low enough.

Excel is low code, but that's old. Does low code mean newfangled?

I think it could be confusing what is low code and what is not.

jjice
The term? Yeah, I think it works well. The concept? You always end up really restricted and if you want to get some serious work done, you usually end up needing a real platform (in my experience).