[ad] Low-Code Technology, really? [/ad]

[Doug Averch]

There is no application with 25 to 100 forms that can be written with "low-code technology" or LCT. U2logic has it's own development tools that we wrote in 2004 and are still using them. We have developed new software and have never found full-blown applications that can get by with LCT. We have developed over 1000 web-based forms and at no time did we ever get by with LCT except on code files or other simple data entry forms. Clients are notorious for asking for customization that requires us to take our simple forms and make them much more complicated with all the JavaScript, CSS, our API, and UniBasic changes.

The real problem is reporting as would take us days if not weeks to produce reports. Report writing is a real challenge in UniBasic and cannot be done in LCT. How do you write for all those formats without adding code for specific drivers for each print time? Buy another tool from a non-Rocket Vendor to interface with Universe or Unidata? We wanted to use JSON to build a report and the report writer would ask the user what format they would like their report in. We wanted a tool where we could drag and drop objects on the form and add aggregations to form without having to understand the database. We wanted a tool where we could change the form when the Client said can you add break totals and by the way have the report page break on the sub-totals, for example.

We found open source BIRT (Business Intelligence Reporting Tool) which can produce reports that can be seen in XLSX, DOCX, PDF, PCL, or HTML. We wrote an ODA (Open Data Access) to talk to the Universe and Unidata databases so BIRT would work for us. Simple columnar reports take about one hour and complex reports a few hours or up to a few days. Our average UniBasic code went from thousands of lines to a few hundred. Huge JSON arrays can be built in milliseconds using UDO which makes these reports run in few seconds.

Regards,

Doug

www.u2logic.com

[John Stokka]

I assume your post/rant/ad is aimed at my post...  Forgive me if I'm mistaken...

No offense Doug, but these "development tools that we wrote in 2004 and are still using them" are Low-Code technology are they not?

"Our average UniBasic code went from thousands of lines to a few hundred."  That sounds like the definition of Low-Code technology.

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[chandru murthi]

In theory, I absolutely disagree.  I'm assuming that what you label LCT (never heard the term, but then I'm notorious for not following trends,) is like 4GL, Application Generators, etc. In the Pick world alone, there are numerous such, which long-time, very successful companies are using. My own experience more than bears this out. Forge/Ultimate Update (clones) was the engine behind many very successful, complex applications. The one I have dealt with for the last 12 years, is an html generator that can create very complex browser forms & UI.

There is no question that both these products have reduced mindless, repetitive programming by, say, 60-70%.

The secret is an ongoing development by the authors of the product. Of course if it's static it won't meet new needs. And I'd agree there a lot of simplistic, mostly code generators, which expect you to modify the genned code for complex functionality. This of course voids the reason to use the product...if you change the code, it won't be regenerated correctly if you use the product to make further changes.

AFA reports are concerned, agreed that the standard report generator in any flavor of Pick is limited. But again, there are ways around this. I found that a large number of reports, 60-70% could use the standard generator; my 4GL would just make it easier to parametrize it so you don't have to remember the syntax. Then, an additional percentage of reports was done by massaging the raw data into a temporary work file, then using the standard report generator. This way things like rolling totals and page break issues were performed programatically; the report generator was used as a simple formatter, which it excels in. Then minor mods to the report, not involving data change, would be trivial.

I don't know what LCT tools U2 has, but non-vendors certainly have great ones.

Chandru