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Re:Microsoft's low-code strategy paints a target on UIPath a... by codingdave on Wednesday June 02, 2021 @04:34PM (#27373696)
I've been working in and supporting low-code environments off and on since the 90s (Lotus Notes -> Sharepoint -> Salesforce, if it matters) I've been the guy who does those re-writes when needed. I can confirm that the biggest and worst of them need re-writes, but most just need a little cleanup. Most are like you said, a non-programmer does something unwise. I spent much of my time giving people a "Dev 101" course to help them do it better, and they'd build heaps of apps that never needed re-writes.

Even when they did need taken over by IT because they scaled to a level of being business-critical, they rarely needed a full re-write, they most often just needed enhanced. Adding in validation, data integrity, backups, UX, testing, and simply streamlining the app with features that needed "real" code. And once a decade we'd re-platform them all as the underlying platforms become outdated and were eclipsed by something new.

It was amazing how well the non-programmers could do if given a weekly opportunity to just come in and show their work, ask questions, and get advice. Some of the people I coached even went on to learn how to code and have become successful software engineers in their own right.

If you ever end up supporting such environments again, I'd recommend considering yourself a mentor to new developers more so than someone who is going to clean up someone else's mess. People might surprise you with how much they are capable of.

Re:Microsoft's low-code strategy paints a target on UIPath a... by leejoramo on Wednesday June 02, 2021 @04:50PM (#27373861)
100% agree with you.

I really enjoy supporting people who have already built their own tool, but need a programmer to take it to another level. Such projects tend to be well scoped, and the project owners are heavily invested in and understand their actual needs.

In 20+ years of professional programming, projects that started with the end user solving their own problems have nearly a 100% success rate.