
What I wish I knew before becoming a code-free programmer - leeale10
https://airdev.co/post/6-things-i-wish-i-knew-before-becoming-a-code-free-programmer-1524018292858x527538231573998900
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rock8y
Found the google cache!
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:odBrx_J...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:odBrx_JiISYJ:https://airdev.co/post/6-things-
i-wish-i-knew-before-becoming-a-code-free-
programmer-1524018292858x527538231573998900&num=1&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1&vwsrc=0)

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LyndsySimon
Interesting.

Given the level of knowledge the author now has of the underlying data
structure and algorithmic thinking, I suspect that learning a "real"
programming language would only be a small leap and would open up a ton of
capabilities for them.

That's pretty much been my experience with visual SQL query builders as well -
by the time someone is able to use it efficiently, they are not only a small
step from just writing the code, but they'll end up being many times faster if
they did. That said, I think visual development definitely has a place; it's
great for visualizing the relationships between things and reducing
complexity. Once that's done, optimizations and sometimes the actual
implementation of the blocks you're connecting is best done in traditional
code.

~~~
leeale10
That's a good point. I don't have much traditional programming experience
myself, but have found that Bubble has help me "speak the same language" as
those who program with code. Perhaps there is an interesting place for tools
like Bubble to be a middle-ground for those learning the principles behind
coding.

Why is it you think that someone like the author would be able to code many
times faster than they could develop software visually through Bubble?

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LyndsySimon
> Why is it you think that someone like the author would be able to code many
> times faster than they could develop software visually through Bubble?

Thinking about how things go together is the hard part of writing software.
Every time I've ever used a visual interface to show that, I've had to spend
additional time to "translate" what I'm building into what's actually
happening on the layer underneath. The abstraction is too leaky to be of use
to me.

It's possible that there is a visual language out there that's not so leaky,
but I've not seen it. Granted I've not used Bubble.

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jasonpeacock
From _What Can 't I Build?_, this isn't "code-free programming", rather it's
code-free web app building. It's still very powerful but not the same thing as
coding.

    
    
      "That said, there are some limits to what the core language can do. Bubble’s language is comparable in power to spreadsheet formulas: you can do a lot, but anything requiring recursive or looping operations on data (such as, for instance, writing a custom machine-learning algorithm) would be difficult."
    

[https://bubble.is/faq](https://bubble.is/faq)

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mark-r
My experience with code-free is that it's write-only. I had the misfortune of
trying to support a database import to BI that was done in a visual platform,
whose name I have thankfully forgotten. Trying to trace a single field to see
how it was derived was nearly impossible, because you couldn't work backwards
- and the instructions for this were kept in a blob that you had no visibility
into.

Code really is the best representation of a coding problem.

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sshine
How long would it take to write Bubble in Bubble?

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derekp7
I also like to add an additional challenge -- Can you use Bubble to create a
program that generates solutions to the triangular-shaped golf tee game that
sits on tables at Cracker Barrel? What about a program that plays chess or go?

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leeale10
Have to admit, I've never been to Cracker Barrel.

But for chess or go, you can certainly create a solid interface for two real
players to play the game on Bubble. To build in a "computer player" would
probably be difficult.

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halamadrid
Can’t open the page either. I guess that happens to code free programming

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leeale10
Ha Ha. We were getting a traffic spike through this, which caused the issue.
But Bubble has this feature where you can add more "units" to your overall app
capacity to handle increased traffic, which we did. Enjoy!

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ItsMe000001
I have no paranoid browser settings (i.e. JS still is enabled), only an ad
blocker, and yet all I get is

> _Your browser was unable to load some necessary resources, contact your IT
> network administrator and ask him or her to allow access to_
    
    
         dhtiece9044ep.cloudfront.net 
         dd7tel2830j4w.cloudfront.net/ 
         d1muf25xaso8hp.cloudfront.net
    

Even from sites with ad blocker blocker have I ever seen such a failure to
even load the page at all.

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leeale10
Thanks for flagging

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dalacv
Great tips. I love Bubble. I think they are onto something good.

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leeale10
We love Bubble too. Certainly believe that visual programming is the future.

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SeriousM
If you're not coding, you're a user. No matter how "technical" your task is.

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pliftkl
I think that's a broad over simplification. You're a "user" of your compiler
or interpreter. Is it the act of typing that makes it programming? We've had a
definition and model for computation since Turing that is largely universal,
so as long as the language and rules that you are following is Turing
complete, I think it could be argued that using that language is by definition
programming.

I'd also argue that a game like cargo-bot (which is effectively a game-ified
assembly language) is very much programming, even though you do nothing but
drag some boxes around.

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severine
statusCode 400 message "Operation timed out -- app too busy"

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leeale10
It should be fixed!

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stephdchang
Nice article!

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Nashwa
interesting

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anm89
Still not clear to me what "code-free programming" means. Wix with some
plugins?

The website says you're looking at paying $100k+ if you want "fully custom
responsive design". Seems designed to prey on people who don't understand
tech...

