> So if we have to develop the interfaces, workflow, and logic that make up our applications, then it sounds like we are stuck, right? To a certain extent, yes, but we have a few options.
> To most developers, software equals code, but that isn’t reality. There are many ways to build software, and one of those ways is through using visual tools. Before the web, visual development and RAD tools had a much bigger place in the market. Tools like PowerBuilder, Visual Foxpro, Delphi, VB, and Access all had visual design capabilities that allowed developers to create interfaces without typing out any code.
[...]
> And many companies are jumping all over these platforms. Vendors like Salesforce (App Cloud), Outsystems, Mendix, or Kony are promising the ability to create applications many times faster than “traditional” application development. While many of their claims are probably hyperbole, there likely is a bit of truth to them as well. For all of the downsides of depending on platforms like these, they probably do result in certain types of applications being built faster than traditional enterprise projects using .NET or Java.
Huh? I challenge this guy to start up a WinForms project in Visual Studio and tell me what's substantially different from the Access forms designer. But this comes with its own limitations (it gets messy fast if you want to do something "non-native," collaboration is a challenge, it encourages sloppy mistakes like misaligned controls, poorly named controls, and form logic interleaved with business logic) and, more importantly, doesn't actually do the hard part. Creating buttons and boxes can be tedious if you don't have some kind of tool to do some of the work for you, but even in an environment where it's totally done by hand it's not where the bulk of effort in a project goes.
> To most developers, software equals code, but that isn’t reality. There are many ways to build software, and one of those ways is through using visual tools. Before the web, visual development and RAD tools had a much bigger place in the market. Tools like PowerBuilder, Visual Foxpro, Delphi, VB, and Access all had visual design capabilities that allowed developers to create interfaces without typing out any code.
[...]
> And many companies are jumping all over these platforms. Vendors like Salesforce (App Cloud), Outsystems, Mendix, or Kony are promising the ability to create applications many times faster than “traditional” application development. While many of their claims are probably hyperbole, there likely is a bit of truth to them as well. For all of the downsides of depending on platforms like these, they probably do result in certain types of applications being built faster than traditional enterprise projects using .NET or Java.
Huh? I challenge this guy to start up a WinForms project in Visual Studio and tell me what's substantially different from the Access forms designer. But this comes with its own limitations (it gets messy fast if you want to do something "non-native," collaboration is a challenge, it encourages sloppy mistakes like misaligned controls, poorly named controls, and form logic interleaved with business logic) and, more importantly, doesn't actually do the hard part. Creating buttons and boxes can be tedious if you don't have some kind of tool to do some of the work for you, but even in an environment where it's totally done by hand it's not where the bulk of effort in a project goes.