Allow me to share with you my unique relationship with low-code, despite the possibility that my story will ruin my reputation as a hard-core, traditional Java, .NET programming expert.

Becoming a Hardcore Coder

When I was a kid, my dad bought the ZX Spectrum, my first-ever computer. After seeing it for the first time, I was completely out of my mind. That was the one event that changed my life. My destiny was set on the road to becoming a hardcore coder.

Shortly after getting familiar with ZX, my dad and I started copying code from books and magazines. This is where I learned BASIC and assembly. It was quite hard to copy the code by hand from the prints, but this would allow me to understand it. I’d type all the code in and then pray that it would work: RUN, ENTER… and sometimes it didn’t work. It was time for debugging.

In high school, my friends and I started working with some powerful machines, such as the Atari 800XE, the Atari ST, the BBC Micro, and the MSX. In university, I learned about how to work with Modula-2, Java, and C++. It was how I first got introduced to this whole new concept called object-oriented programming.

How I Started Working with Objects Despite All the Debugging?

After doing some freelance coding jobs, I eventually ended up with my first IT and programmer job. My role was to work on the company’s intranet. Then one day, as a super user, I managed to use the command “rm -rf”. Remove. Recursive. Forced. A recipe for disaster. The entire data was gone. And even worse, the backups did not restore the system to its former state. So, I had to do all the things myself and rebuild the intranet. In a single night, I completed the whole code. It was tough, but I got it done.

There was another project where I had to code a layer on top of the original code because the core was just too rigid and strange. Everything was an object in that project. Even a single letter was the object. This meant I had to debug through a zillion classes before finding the right method. The reason behind it was that it was implemented under the KISS – Keep It Simple,Stupid. This was the moment I finally started wondering if object-oriented programming was the silver bullet everyone was talking about. If so, why on earth was so much debugging necessary?

Exploring the Low-Code

I was a good coder in this movement and cleared all major obstacles. But then my company grew rapidly and was acquired by an even bigger company. At this point, I was worried about this Java programmer and hardcore coder. This ended up with me working for a non-tech company on a temporary contract. This company was also bought by another big company, but this time I was fortunate and was hired again by the same company. I was working on the same project for that company. My company was satisfied with my work until the day came that changed everything.

My career Journey after Low-code

My company wanted me to get even more from my work. They wanted me to increase my efficiency in code. To do this, I went to the OutSystems BootCamp. They had heard that it is the future of programming and can take your coding efficiency to the next level. My alarms were all set off at once. Low-code? How could anything be beneficial to me if it covered my priceless, hand-crafted code? And, I had a gut feeling that the code it generated would be even worse than what Frontpage produced, with ten times as much HTML than was needed. I was thinking that my career as a programmer was over.

Clarifying My Doubts

Finally, at the OutSystems BootCamp, all my doubts about low-code were cleared. I learned that I can use low-code capabilities for abstraction and functionality and still extend it with my C# code. This answered my biggest question: what would happen if I reached the limits of what their platform can do?

I can easily create components with OutSystems using my favorite language, and they will all deploy as DLLs or JARs, respectively. They will be contained within reusable extension components. Low-level integrations are as simple as writing one piece of Visual Studio code, abstracting it as an OutSystems component, and continuing to use it with their visual IDE.

A Refined Solution

I needed to accept that the solution is quite elegant and also works. I can simply integrate it with my systems and my database. You can also do data modeling once you set up OutSystems with an external database. After coming back from the BootCamp, my company set out its first proper project with OutSystems, for which my company received an award. After that, we got certified and created more projects with OutSystems.

So yeah, low-code did not ruin my career at all.

Conclusion

IT seems to be reinventing itself every ten years or so. However, introducing low-code was a great change from the past. I am very excited to see what low-code can do next. OutSystems has a new cloud-native platform that will expand the low-code world even more. Take a look at what OutSystems has achieved with mobile development as well. Without even knowing more about mobile development, I still became an app developer just because of the OutSystems.

Now that I’ve committed to it, I love low-code, and I believe Low-code platforms are the future of development. Once developers start using these platforms, they love how they work as a helping hand, and their workload shifts from managing the code to working on the logic of the app.

Ever wondered what you could build with low-code? Find out with your free OutSystems environment. Start building and see the difference low-code can make. Don’t miss the limited-time offer that gives you your free workspace to experiment, learn and build.