The State Changers discussed the benefits and trade-offs between no-code and pro-code platforms, and between Regular Web Applications (RWA) and Single Page Applications (SPA). They concluded there are four quadrants, each representing a combination of these dimensions.
1. No-code RWA (e.g., Webflow): offers tooling to create multiple web pages but may result in slower load times on transitions. However, the isolated nature of the pages can provide stability. 2. Pro-code RWA (e.g., Next.js, Laravel, Ruby on Rails): used for creating multiple web pages but often crosses over into being an SPA for performance improvement post initial load. 3. No-code SPA (e.g., WeWeb): built on top of the Vue.js, provides a smoother experience as it requires loading code only once and uses less resources for subsequent views. 4. Pro-code SPA (React, Vue.js): most professional grade sites are built this way for best application-like performance. The team discussed that the decision between SPA and RWA would depend on what the application needs. If it's a high interactivity app, the SPA generally wins although the initial load time is a tad slower. For search engine optimization, an RWA can be more beneficial due to faster initial load times, better for SEO performance. When it comes to no-code vs pro-code, the discussion leaned towards using no-code tools if they can handle the majority (around 80%) of what is needed. The remaining (around 20%) can be managed with coding which saves significant time and effort. However, if the no-code tools are not equipped to handle the majority of the app requirements, then pro-code tools might be a better choice. One good example mentioned was ScriptTag, which heavily depends on a center of gravity - the code editor component that isn't available from the no-code environments. In such cases, it would make more sense to rely on pro-code tools. Ultimately, the choice between the type of platform (no-code vs pro-code) and application (RWA vs SPA) will depend on the specifics of the application to be built.
(Source: Office Hours 5/23 Extra: ReactJS )
