Block based programming allows people to make working applications these days. See: Mendix, Labview, Betty Blocks and many many others besides.

PLCs have historically used ladder diagrams, which are also not 'code'. I've seen Excel spreadsheets that you would have been hard pressed to replicate using code.

Programming in its very essence is telling a machine what to do, what form that comes in isn't all that relevant, and code is just one of those forms.

'actual code' is not a requirement for programming.