I’ve been seeing AirTable getting a lot of attention and much hype around no-/low-code solutions.<p>Are we on a path to re-inventing what we had with Access and FileMaker in the 90s? — only this time, with mobile apps and API/Webhook connectivity?<p>Is there a demand for customizable data-entry and processing Apps for small businesses and orgs? If so, which market segment do you think would benefit the most?
I don't know, back in those times personally I never liked MS Access, Filemaker was meh (for me), there was the Borland Paradox engine that (IMHO) was good.<p>Before those there was DBIII and Clipper.<p>For small businesses and niche/custom programs they just worked, nowadays <i>anything</i> seems to be based on SQL (or similar) databases that are way more complex and are often "too much" or some simpler (I would say too simple) technologies that (often) come out as unreliable.<p>If a brick and mortar store has the need (say) to make 3,000 invoices a year, it won't scale up in a short time, still it isn't a hobby, what I see available are either complex (and costly) programs that can manage 200,000 invoices a year or "poor" programs that will choke on 1,000 or so.<p>In any case both types have been typically written by programmers/companies that have not the time (or will) to listen to their clients and customize the interface to the actual needs of the specific customer, or at least this has been my experience in recent years.<p>But probably these issues are not dependent on the lack of tools but to the changes in the way the whole stuff is developed.