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Write Windows Phone Apps, No Code Required
jfruh writes "One of the biggest challenges Microsoft has faced with its Windows Phone platform is that it's far behind in the apps race against iOS and Android. One way to close the gap is to lower the barrier to entry for new app devs, and Microsoft has done so with Windows Phone App Studio, a hosted service that lets you build applications without actually writing any code. The description of how App Studio works may leave you wondering how useful or exciting the apps created will be, but a surge of developer interest during the current beta program has surprised even Microsoft with its scope."
Some earlier examples I enjoyed:
1984: http://gamesdbase.com/game/commodore-64/adventure-creator.aspx
1993: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Realms:_Unlimited_Adventures
Check out the bulk of Android apps... most of them could be made by a monkey flinging poop at a keyboard. It's not aimed at people looking to make The Next Big Thing.
You are not creating new lego bricks, you are just moving them around and coloring on them
So it's very much like moving x86 instructions around and putting them next to each other?
Ezekiel 23:20
I had to make some of those Access applications. *shudder*
Nothing like writing code where you have to fight the very environment you're writing it in.
Technoli
One thing not called out is that you can actually download the Solution File once you are done (also, you also have the option to deploy to devices outside of the app store). So, you can use the App Builder for prototyping and then get the solution code when you are ready to take your app further.
So, even if you view it as simple, it can be useful.
Android had something like this, and I believe it went the way of the dodo.
Not quite. It went to MIT: http://appinventor.mit.edu/
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
While in an entirely different class, LabVIEW is a graphical programming language which is quite powerful (true language / direct compiler).
Oh fuck no.
LabVIEW makes it moderately OK to control some stuff provided your control and logging and whatever system can be somewhat easily represented by a circuit diagram like construction.
In other words, it makes the easy bit of controlling stuff almost trivial to the user.
The trouble is that then the usre wants to do something a bit more complex and the simple, easy to use circuit diagram like thing turns into a mega evil rats nest of doom.
All projects lasting more than about a week end up tending towards a rats nest of doom.
What astonishes me is the amazing quantity of effort people will put in to *not* learning how to simply code it.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Which puts it right on par with Android and iOS