
No-Code vs. Pro-Code: A New Hope - ochiba
https://journeyapps.com/engineering-blog/no-code-vs-pro-code-a-new-hope/
======
nkingsy
I’m currently in the process of converting a no code product to “pro code“ per
their definition, and I agree with their intentions here.

Many of these efforts in the past (including the team I’m on) lump opinionated
libraries in with what I call secondary programming languages.

Opinionated libraries can save everyone a lot of time, as long as they are
programmable and allow easy access to levels below, as well as further
abstraction upwards. Throwing a new programming language into the mix
interferes with abstraction traversal and stack traces in a devastating way.

~~~
matharmin
There is a huge advantage to using an existing language
(JavaScript/TypeScript) like this, compared to creating new DSLs. There is
simply such a big ecosystem to leverage in terms of development tooling (auto-
complete etc), existing libraries and existing libraries.

------
sgt
We have been using Journey's platform for years. We use it across multiple
countries and tens of thousands of users. I can't recommend them enough.

------
pbiggar
Firm agreement about the goals! Over at Dark
([https://darklang.com](https://darklang.com)), we've been referring to the
space adjacent to Low/No-code as "Just code", to indicate that there's only
code there and nothing else. Would be curious what other languages/frameworks
the JourneyApps folks would include in "Pro-code"?

~~~
razorjaws
Good question and we also resonate with "Just code".

OXIDE at its core is built on-top of a radically new framework we architected
called Reactor which allows us to build desktop-grade software in the web
(such as OXIDE), which we then used to craft the ultimate experience for the
Journey ecosystem.

Apps built on Journey are currently developed using Javascript or Typescript
but because of the highly modular nature of our tools and platform, we are
going to start supporting more languages in the near future.

------
arauhala
I wonder if you are familiar with the predictive databases?

We at Aito.ai have gotten lot of interest from different RPA/no-node users and
providers, and predictive database queries seem like a best intelligent
automation.

[https://aito.ai/blog/could-predictive-database-queries-
repla...](https://aito.ai/blog/could-predictive-database-queries-replace-
machine-learning-models/)

It would be interesting to deeply integrate predictive functionality in your
system, especially as it integrates a DB naturally. This could be used to
offer predictive functionality from the plarform out of the box.

------
bilater
IMHO if you want to attract no-code users you need to change your site
branding. It's very 'engineerish' aka probably fine for the crowd on HN but
not on Indie Hackers. Look at Webflow/Airtable/Zapier and take inspiration.
You're going to have a hard time resonating with that crowd. They like bright
colors.

~~~
ochiba
Thanks for the feedback! We are focused on software engineers rather than no-
code users.

~~~
bilater
gotcha - best of luck!

------
razorjaws
Hi I'm one of the architects behind OXIDE. Feel free to AMA

~~~
ogre_codes
I'm a bit confused here. The article starts out talking about no-code software
development and the advantages and limits of no-code software, then lays out a
bunch of principals including things like using an OSS stack. Then at the very
bottom drops what looks like a complicated TS development IDE with some bolt
on tools (which appear to be for-fee/ non-OSS).

Who is the target market for this? What kind of app would I write with it?
Since Could I build up an OXIDE stack myself and make some apps for my
friends?

About the only use-case I can see here is enterprise app development and
personally, I think tying yourself to a vendor Platform-as-a-Service solution
like this is a bit fraught.

~~~
razorjaws
Hi there! So OXIDE is interesting in that it has what we believe are the best
of the typical low-code tools, but integrated in a way that the developer can
easily transition to and fro into typical pro-code development. The screenshot
on the homepage shows a plethora of the various tools and features that OXIDE
has, but the IDE can easily be configured for low-code or pro-code development
independently. Out of the box we provide some default workspaces that cater
for the typical paradigms of software development on our platform, which are
not as complex as in the screenshot.

Regarding the OSS, we deeply integrate it into the IDE effectively removing
most of the configuration and complexity required to make it all work well
together.

------
secretsinger
Obligatory: Can you hook it up to GPT-3 and an email address, so a client can
just email in a feature request and get it added automatically?

