No-code doesn't mean no-debugging
... or no-thinking-like-a-developer.
I'm a huge fan of no-code but this is a small bit of nuance I feel deserves to be put out there.
Just because you're not literally writing lines of code, doesn't mean you're not thinking (and debugging) like a developer.
You'll likely still need to think about how to model and structure your data — i.e. perform database design. Thinking about primary keys, foreign keys, many-to-many mappings. Database thinking doesn't go away — no-code forces it immediately to the forefront, and gets rid of all of the cruft.
You'll also still need to debug your app. Just because you're not literally writing lines of code, doesn't mean you're not a flawed human building a mechanical system. Things will go wrong, and you'll need to figure out why. I'm not sure what debuggers look like in the world of no-code, but I'd bet on the indie hackers that build them.
There is a hype of no- code tools and no-code development. These just help you build without code but the main problem solving part is still there that how some things is gonna built and how they work.
The main skills of programmers is still needed just that they don't need to write code.
Absolutely. I spent a good chunk of my time this week looking at "logs" on bubble.io to debug a few workflows
And also, the no-code platform could be buggy ahah, it's still code
I've never built with no-code myself but I've read about it but I completely agree.
Just because you don't have to write code yourself it doesn't mean you won't have to fit the puzzle pieces together (already-made or custom coded)
So true! I haven't built no-code apps, but when I worked in an agency we made all of our websites with Webflow, and sometimes there were endless iterations of debugging, some need for use of custom code, some websites loaded for a long time because of initial poor structure. So yeah, it's very true that you need a certain mindset to develop without code :)
I feel no-code is great for prototyping but not viable in the long run. As a business/tool it's great though, but in no way a replacement to devs imo.
That's the feeling I get too. Long term maintainability will be key to watch out for as the space develops.
I hate to disagree but this time I totally disagree. No-code was "invented" exactly to avoid all this pain in the butt so don't tell me I should go and start debugging Word or Zoom or Google Spreadsheets - all these tools can be considered as a "no-code" even if they launched long before this term popped up.
Even if you are talking about "no-code" tools helping with creating/developing something their purpose is the same. And I guess you are actually talking about testing, not about debugging because there is no a "no-code" tool allowing you to debug the code you are generating.
I'm not saying it's a new thing that no-code still has debugging. I totally think you can "debug" spreadsheet "bugs".
And just because there may be a tool to help with debugging no-code in one situation, doesn't mean the general principles of debugging for no-code don't apply. Things go wrong. Someone needs to fix them :)
Can you plesse tell me how you would debug any tool you are talking? I'd like to make sure were are on the same page.
And what do you mean by putting "debug" and "bugs" into quotes?
I'm mostly talking about debugging as systematic troubleshooting in the abstract. So debugging a spreadsheet would look like debugging anything else — characterize the nature of the error, form theories about the cause, test those theories, repeat the cycle from the start if needed.
That's just to communicate that those words are not how we usually talk about spreadsheets. But I do think they fully apply.
thanks for the post Mark. Agree there is stacks of de-bugging to do on a no-code built app.
I've been building an audio app on Bubble for 6 months and I've spent countless hours getting things to work. Bubble actually has a debugger built in so you can pinpoint where the source of problems may be which is very useful.