Low code goes open source: Appsmith is the Ferrari-factor

People (well, British people, Americans and many others) think that the name Smith is a comparatively dull moniker to be blessed with and that Ferrari speaks of Italian flair and passion.

In truth, they mean the same thing.

Essentially a common occupational surname as opposed to any form of nominative determinism (Bakers bake, Woodwards tend forests, Coopers make barrels, Thatchers look after roofing etc.), the name Smith really means worker, doer, fabricator, maker and creator.

Shamelessly referencing Wikipedia then, Smith enjoys equivalents in various languages with German Schmidt or Schmied, Portuguese Ferreiro, Ferreira, French Lefèvre, Spanish Herrero, Italian Fabbri, Ferrari, Ferrero, Ukrainian Koval etc. 

Even the Polish Kowalski was anglicized to Smith, the list goes on.

Doer, fabricator, maker, creator

But it is this worker, doer, fabricator, maker and creator element that may have (perhaps even subconsciously) driven San Francisco-based Appsmith to choose its company name.

The firm claims to be the first open source low code software helping developers to build internal tools.

Founded in 2019, the organisation’s software has now been downloaded more than 5-million times with more than 11,000 stars on GitHub.

Last year (2021) saw some 150 enhancements brought forwards, including major features like JS Editor, Gitsync and 30-plus new widgets and variations. In total, 184 features were released,

CRUD with a thud

Appsmith now has more than 2,000 community members with 168 contributors — 100 of those from outside the company. According to Abhishek Nayak, co-founder and CEO, Appsmith, this low code software that helps developers build custom (often critical yet tedious) internal and CRUD (create, read, update and delete) type applications quickly, usually within only hours. 

“Every enterprise needs to create custom applications — a slow, repetitive, expensive process — that requires work to build the user interface, write integrations, code the business logic, manage access controls and ultimately deploy the app. Appsmith is 10 times faster by enabling software engineers to build the user interface with pre-built components, code the business logic by connecting application programming interfaces (APIs) along with any database, then test and deploy a web application where users are authenticated using a dashboard,” said Nayak.

A list of more than a dozen areas targeted for new features in 2022 can be viewed here.

 

(Free image Wikipedia) The Enzo Ferrari (Type F140) is a mid-engine sports car manufactured by Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari and named after the company’s founder, Enzo Ferrari.

 

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