Abstract
Background: In recent years, Low-code development (LCD) is growing rapidly,
and Gartner and Forrester have predicted that the use of LCD is very promising.
Giant companies, such as Microsoft, Mendix, and Outsystems have also launched
their LCD platforms. Aim: In this work, we explored two popular online
developer communities, Stack Overflow (SO) and Reddit, to provide insights on
the characteristics and challenges of LCD from a practitioners' perspective.
Method: We used two LCD related terms to search the relevant posts in SO and
extracted 73 posts. Meanwhile, we explored three LCD related subreddits from
Reddit and collected 228 posts. We extracted data from these posts and applied
the Constant Comparison method to analyze the descriptions, benefits, and
limitations and challenges of LCD. For platforms and programming languages used
in LCD, implementation units in LCD, supporting technologies of LCD, types of
applications developed by LCD, and domains that use LCD, we used descriptive
statistics to analyze and present the results. Results: Our findings show that:
(1) LCD may provide a graphical user interface for users to drag and drop with
little or even no code; (2) the equipment of out-of-the-box units (e.g., APIs
and components) in LCD platforms makes them easy to learn and use as well as
speeds up the development; (3) LCD is particularly favored in the domains that
have the need for automated processes and workflows; and (4) practitioners have
conflicting views on the advantages and disadvantages of LCD. Conclusions: Our
findings suggest that researchers should clearly define the terms when they
refer to LCD, and developers should consider whether the characteristics of LCD
are appropriate for their projects.
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