Vlad Magdalin

Since "no code" can be so confusing, does anyone have any ideas for what to call the category of creating software visually/declaratively without needing a text editor? Other terms that have baggage and are not ideal imo: wysiwygs, app builders, website builders...

I sorta like "no code" because you can pair it with "low code" and "pro code" to make a spectrum of builders, divided by how much code they get into. But maybe it's still too much focus on CODE rather than what they're trying to do.

I've been thinking about Webflow's positioning a lot. It's the classic "bicycle for the mind": you could do all of this with code, but it's a lot faster this way, so why bother? But any formulation around the word "code" centers code in a way that's confusing or unhelpful.

I think "development by direct manipulation" in a talk I saw Vlad give is a lot closer to the magic. Like a 3D editor lets you draw a model that is stored as code, Webflow lets you draw a website that becomes code, but the code isn't the interesting part, the tool is.

WYSIWYG is the term for this but associated with bad underlying code. So: another term, ideally not so nerdy. A "visual web editor"?

"Automated web development"? "Web development accelerator"? "Like that exo-skeleton Riley wears in Alien, except for building websites instead of lifting heavy things"?

I'm still working on it.