8 bit bus

 IT Trend for 2021: Low-Code Tools

It's here at last: a computer system which generates genuine program code. No more bolting together pre-written modules, doctored by parameters. No more having to write the odd patch or additional program by hand. This systems accepts program and suite designs at the flowchart level and generates the code necessary to meet your needs. Exactly.

- Marketing hype from 1981.  http://www.tebbo.com/presshere/html/wf8104.htm 

Back in 1981, a computer program was released, modestly called "The Last One". It was, allegedly, the "last" computer program for business you'd ever have to buy.  This is because it would be able to automatically write the source code to any program you needed.  Just give it the specs, and it would churn out an application.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_(software)

Last summer, I did some reading up on "low-code" tools. These are programs which come with a pre-fabricated set of UI input and visualization elements, a straightforward way to integrate them with data schema, and hooks for defining business process flow.  Pega is one of the more prominent tools in this list, but there are a lot of them.

There's a lot of interest in these things, much more than back in the 1980s.

This is because programming is difficult. Also, increasingly, UIs are standardizing on an understood and usable set of widgets. Finally, some "digital work" is highly structured and established, such as customer service intakes (think about your doctor visit check-ins), some customer expert systems (think call centers), and some reporting.  And demand for programming is increasing.  And, to some degree, "A.I." can be of assistance, in either design or production.

Thus it makes sense to give productivity a boost by (a) giving developers tools to program some work (much) faster, and (b) potentially widening the net for who can be a programmer.

The modern versions are more sophisticated than The Last One. And frankly, I think there's a lot of business processes written in code, that is better automated than hand-curated.

I think 2021 will be a good year for these tools.