Found the google cache! http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:odBrx_J...

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.

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?

> 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.

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

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.

How long would it take to write Bubble in Bubble?

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?

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.

According to its site, Bubble is "a powerful general-purpose visual framework for creating web applications." Chess and Go aren't web applications.

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

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!

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.

Thanks for flagging

Your page doesn't render without JS enabled, including JS from hard-to-trust cloudfront.net domains, and also doesn't render in Firefox's reader mode.

Thanks for flagging. This is helpful for us to assess

so, you can only run Bubble stuff on their systems? That means it isn't yours at all. What happens when they go bust? what about your apps then?

From bubble.is/faq :

"Finally, we want to make sure you feel secure about building on the Bubble platform, so, although we plan to be around for a very long time, here's our guarantee: if we ever for some reason have to close down shop, we will release the Bubble source code under an open-source license so that you can set up your own Bubble server and keep your app running."

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

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

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

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.

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

It should be fixed!

Nice article!

interesting

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...