Q: Why did you build Codeflow?
We built Codeflow with a vision to simplify programming while providing the same or better levels of scalability, flexibility and performance aspects of existing programming platforms.
As developers, we spent a significant amount of our time writing boilerplate code to glue together various API and libraries. Understanding the inner workings of an API or library can be painful as there is often no visual clue on how various components work together. Codeflow solves that pain by letting developers build software by using a visual interface that resembles a flowchart or a whiteboard diagram.
It reduces boilerplate code, cut down the learning curve and makes it easy to collaborate better with fellow teammates. Of course, you can still code and/or invoke your existing code, but only when you really want to.
Q: What are the advantages of using Codeflow?
Because Codeflow is visual, the learning curve is much lesser. With traditional text-based programming languages, you end up constantly referring the documentation for every library/module you use. IDEs can help, but they are often clueless on dynamic languages and depend on meta-docs created by the library authors.
Codeflow brings a fully integrated visual environment with the engine and the designer made around the same language specification from the ground up. That means the designer and engine work together with each other allowing for a seamless development experience. In addition, because of the visual nature, Codeflow can work with modern & futuristic human-computer interfaces like touch screens, AR/VR interfaces etc. And most importantly, your code looks beautiful and is much more understandable to you and your team and helping you collaborate better.
Q: Can I deploy Codeflow on my own servers?
Codeflow platform consists of a designer (IDE) and a run-time engine. The engine is available on any platform that can install Node.js. The IDE is available as a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux (thanks to Electron).
Q: What makes Codeflow different from other Visual programming platforms?
Codeflow is one of the first visual programming platforms that is open, extensible, robust and scalable. Unlike other implementations, we tried not to be tied to any particular paradigm, be it visual or traditional coding. We have taken what's best among the existing systems with a vision to provide a better programming platform for developers. We believe we have achieved that and has best of both the worlds.
Q: Can non-programmers code?
Codeflow is a platform that separates programming from coding. Even though it makes it much easier for non-programmers to learn programming concepts quickly, Codeflow is not a replacement for programming. However, Codeflow reduces the barrier of entry significantly that the code is no more a black box and non-programmers can easily understand the inner workings allowing them to contribute better.