TL;DR: Spent 6 months trying to build addition in "no-code". Ended up writing pure functions. I am now enlightened.

Month 1: The Dream

"Code is gatekeeping! I'll revolutionize math with pure visual programming!"

Buys 7 no-code courses, $2,400 in SaaS subscriptions

Month 2: The Workarounds

- Tried pre-built text elements (2,500 combinations, Bubble crashed)

- Attempted human-in-the-loop via Zapier + email (grandmother got tired after 50 calculations)

- Explored blockchain oracle services (gas fees: $12 per addition)

Month 3: The Bargaining

"Maybe just tiny bit of logic?"

- IF/THEN workflows (wait, that's Boolean logic)

- Mathematical operators in Bubble (wait, that's... math code)

- Excel formulas (DEFINITELY code)

Month 4: The Acceptance

Discovered that addition is... computational. Who knew?

Month 5: The Revelation

Every "visual" operation was just:

- Model (data structure)

- Update (state transformation)

- View (presentation)

The Bubble "visual workflow" was trying to be The Elm Architecture!

Month 6: The Awakening Opened a text editor. Typed in elm:

add : Int -> Int -> Int

add a b =

    a + b

-- Or even better:

add = (+)

Runtime: 0.001ms

Cost: $0

Dependencies: 0

Side effects: None (guaranteed by compiler)

Bugs: Impossible (thanks Elm!)

I am no longer no-code. I am pure functional. I have discovered mathematical truth.

Posted from Elm reactor (my Bubble subscription has been cancelled)

Update: Learning that functional programming is just applied mathematics. Turns out mathematicians invented the ultimate "no-code" 300 years ago - they called it "functions". Who's gatekeeping who?

P.S.: My addition function is now proven correct by the type system. Beat that, drag-and-drop!