If you need to do something relatively robust on the web, chances are you'll study Amazon Web Services closely. Its services and APIs based on the pay as you go model have become very popular around the world, but they're still oriented toward developers with specialized training. Recognizing that limit, the Seattle giant aims to remove it from the equation with Amazon Honeycode, a new platform that enables the creation of mobile and web apps for those potential AWS customers without programming experience.
In late February we talked about the Andromo platform for creating mobile apps without programming. A few days later, we explored the MIT App Inventor offering, which points in the same direction. The pattern is obvious, and the need undeniable: any attempt to democratization in the creation of mobile and web apps requires minimizing (or if possible, eliminating) the "code factor".
So, how do you work on an application when your knowledge of programming languages is zero? The folks at Amazon decided to take inspiration from a classic piece of software like VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program for computers and the "killer app" of the Apple II. VisiCalc users discovered it was very easy to learn, and in no time they were doing things that would have required a lot of code in other environments.
Honeycode: A New Resource to Create Apps Without Programming
From a certain point of view, spreadsheets never abandoned that intermediate position between custom code and elements meant for mass consumption. This is where Amazon Honeycode comes in. This new AWS service aims to give its customers the ability to develop web apps and mobile apps without writing code, using a structure similar to spreadsheets, without their natural rigidity. The idea is not necessarily new, but Amazon places a lot of emphasis on "zero code", or in their own words, "escaping from code".
Honeycode has a series of templates that customers can use as a starting point. In essence, that's how some of the most complex spreadsheets we've seen began: an initial simple function, anchored to more complex ones, and others, and others, reaching an astonishing level of depth.
However, we must not forget that Honeycode is part of AWS. That means interested users can create apps for up to twenty users at no cost, and from there, payments are "per user" and for the storage used. Finally, Honeycode is in beta phase. If you want to know more, create an account at the link below.
Official site: Click here.
