Drag & Drop Development 1

[lespaul]

In Thread654-1393225 an off topic discussion was spawned about how development these days isn't programming...that because of the reuse of components, most development is drag and drop and there's not much programming involved (caveat: there were plenty of posters who disagreed with the above position). Subsequently today, I came across Iceberg on Demand, which states on the main page:

[tt]What is Iceberg?
Iceberg is a 100% web based platform for building, sharing and selling powerful business applications.

What can you do with it?
Build or configure your own apps using workflow, forms, reports, lists, web services, views, relational tables, charts, calendars and much much more...

How to start?
Iceberg comes with several powerful free applications for HR, CRM, Project Management, Rostering, Bug Tracking and more..

Then what?
Run your applications on our enterprise SAS-70 platform, sell them via our exchange or share them for free [/tt]

What are the opinions out there on development like this? Do you think in 5 years most technical users will be using something like this to develop "Enterprise Applications"?

Leslie

 

[Welshbird]

What you need is an office babel-fish. Worth their weight in gold, they are..

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[Opieo]

@willif
weight in gold?
Heck, around here, it'd be halfway to worth its weight in diamonds ...

~
Give a man some fire, he will be warm for a day, Set a man on fire, he will be warm for the rest of his life.

 

[Welshbird]

(Disclaimer: I have worked as a business analyst)

Really. A good business analyst, with industry knowledge is one of the most sensible investments you can make.

(IMHO)

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[lionelhill]

Natural language won't do. Just look at all the professions that need unambiguity and began with natural language (e.g. law). All that happens is the language starts to be used in such a precise (and often unnatural) way that a member of the public can no longer use it safely, and professionals have to learn it.

A drag-and-drop tool-maker is almost doomed to be either too specific to do the job I need, or too complex for me to understand.

 

[scooterny]

This may be somewhat off track from this thread, but still applicable. I have been a developer for about 15 years, the last 4 or so I have been doing data mining, reporting, business and data analysis. Lately I have been using Crystal Reports, although I have also used Business Objects, Cognos, SQL Server, Access, etc. Yes, drag and drop tools can be used by anyone. To some degree, that is the purpose, to make "programming" easy. I have worked in a data warehouse and you can forget it. It is hard enough writing simple queries with GUI drag and drop tools. Doing ETL with drag and drop tools with millions of records is daunting for the average user. Crystal seems simple on the surface, but when you start digging, there is much you can accomplish with technical competency, the kind only a trained and experienced programmer has. A user may be able to do some simple things, but good, experienced, analytical programmers are here to stay!

 

[j4606]

From my experience generated code is not worth the time saved generating it. Every time I start to work with any sort of generated code I decide its best to start from starch to make whatever I’m working on efficient and easier for future persons to update.