Low-code

A Low-code development platform (LCDPs) is software that provides an environment programmers use to create application software through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional computer programming. LCDPs trace their roots back to fourth-generation programming language (4GL) and rapid application development tools of the 1990s and early 2000s. Similar to these predecessor development environments, LCDPs are based on the principles of model-driven design, automatic code generation, and visual programming.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-code_development_platforms

In the software world, we rely on libraries, APIs and third-party infrastructure so that we can focus on delivering the unique bit of value that wouldn’t otherwise exist. But we still get bogged down. Our teams and roles have become ever more complex and specialized; even full-stack developers have their specialties. Self-professed full-stack developers responded that they specialized in C#, PHP, Java, Node.js or other niches. Then there are the DBAs, the test engineers, the Angular/React/Ember specialists. Much of the software we build follows similar patterns: many are CRUD applications at heart.

Low-code describes a family of tools that helps developers leap-frog all those specialized roles, skip the plumbing and re-implementation, and go straight to the unique 10%. Once you’ve seen these low-code tools in action, it’s not surprising that they’re often also called rapid application development platforms.

Here’s what a typical low-code platform looks like:

• A visual IDE: An environment for visually defining the UIs, workflows and data models of your application and, where necessary, adding hand-written code.
• A connector to one or more back-ends: automatically handles data models, storage and retrieval; think of it as an ORM on steroids.
• Application lifecycle manager: Automated tools to build, debug, deploy and maintain the application in test, staging and production.

 

OutSystems

source: https://www.outsystems.com/blog/what-is-low-code.html

Low-code should not be confused with a low-level programming language. They are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

A low-level programming language is a programming language that provides little or no abstraction from a computer's instruction set architecture—commands or functions in the language map closely to processor instructions. Generally this refers to either machine code or assembly language. The word "low" refers to the small or nonexistent amount of abstraction between the language and machine language.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-level_programming_language