Hacknot - Beware The GUI Builder

Hacknot - Beware The GUI Builder: "So, are GUI builders good for anything at all? Perhaps. They have some utility for mocking up interfaces. You can create static 'snapshots' of your interface and show them to users, perhaps employing printouts of them as paper prototypes. In other words, you ignore the code generation functionality and use the GUI builder as a shape-based drawing tool. I believe this is one of the few useful applications of GUI builders.

Attempting to use them in the prescribed manner is generally a bad idea. They shield the programmer from coding details that they must eventually conquer anyway, introduce an unnecessary tool dependency into the development cycle, and discourage re-use. Of course, as long as there are uninformed managers with access to the company purse, GUI builders will continue to be sold on the basis of their novelty and unsubstantiated claims to productivity improvement."