I'm a tad unusual in this discussion, because I write add-on code for a no-code tool (that you've never heard of, or instantly dismissed if you have.)

The timings might surprise you though. The tool/language originated in DOS in the 80's and moved to Windows in 1994. It allows you to work at the code, and no-code levels (intermingled) and allows you to write your own code to extend the no-code layer.

Which is what I started doing in 1992 for myself (because I'm lazy), addons which it turns out others wanted as well, and so gradually that has become a big part of my day job.

I still write programs in it though, and it's fantastically productive. Mostly I build web apps now, but there are some big desktop systems in play and the odd mobile app as well.

Trends come and go, and it's interesting to see the current discussion (now calling it no-code - at least it has a new name) while we quietly stay under the radar.

For reference there are maybe 5000 people total using this tool, most are in one-man or very small companies. Most are punching far (far) above their actual programming chops. None have ever seen a VC $. ) Most make a living writing either custom software, or niche products (or not so niche). Some are the underpinnings of very large and successful businesses. Very, very, few evangelise the actual product.

Yes all the negatives are in play. It's a commercial system with infrequent upgrades (budget about $200 per year for the base product, say $500 pa for addons), zero marketing, anyone you hire has never heard of it, it's archaic in some places (pretty good in others), has an IDE that occasionally crashes, plays OK (but not terribly well) with version control and so on.

"real" programmers turn their nose up at it (since the days when real programmers used C), and if it was ever "cool", well, decades have passed since then.

But here's the interesting thing. It allows people to find their place on the programming spectrum. They code as much, or as little, as they care to. Coloring inside the lines you can still make fantastic stuff. I know of companies that make a good living selling a product, and the (sole developer) can literally barely write a single line of code. I know of others who have written all the code by hand, and used very little of the no-code layer. The world is a spectrum and each finds his own place.

To dismiss no-code out of hand is to not really understand it. Word is like no-code to writers. Some use just spell checking, some for formatting, but there are still writers writing long-hand on paper because "that's the pure way, and paper never crashes".

I've written code in assembler. And C. And more. And that's all fun, but it turns out customers don't care what you write in. They care about the solution you are selling. What keeps our company of 50 people going is a program written mostly by 2 people, with code stretching back to the mid 90's,but which easily beats out compeditors for functionality and cost and ultimately means we are a player in our space.

Of course no-code won't solve every programming problem (although dropping to the code layer you pretty much can) but in the real world 99% of actually used, useful programs, are boring re-hashes or CRUD, APIs, Web Services, UIs, and so on. That's the stuff people pay for which keeps the lights on.

And yeah, it's fun to optimise string manipulations using assembler, or python, but that stuff doesn't pay the bills.

Ultimatly no-code (with code) is not a new idea, it'll never be the sexy thing, but it is very productive in the right hands, and it'll be around for ages. Alas it takes time and effort to become skilled and experienced though, just like everything else.