# Brittle flows or is it the visual paradigm?

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/brittle-flows-or-is-it-the-visual-paradigm/100911>\
**Category:** Core Development\
**Created:** [5 May 2026 10:01 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/brittle-flows-or-is-it-the-visual-paradigm/100911 "2026-05-05T10:01:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 30

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**Author:** ![knolleary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/knolleary/32/3_2.png) [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)\
**Post date:** [6 May 2026 16:54 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/brittle-flows-or-is-it-the-visual-paradigm/100911/30 "2026-05-06T16:54:50Z")

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> [@gregorius](#):
>
> Folks have asked for a simple representation of links between link call nodes and link-in nodes, yet nothing has happened. Why? This seems confusing for folks (me included). So it seems that it's an acceptable "issue" (not complaining about software quality or NR quality), i.e., no one needs to do something about it.

I really don't know how else to say that we have acknowledged this need and will work on it.

> [@gregorius](#):
>
> however there have been voices (already) arguing for JSONata to be able to implement a `linkcall` function

There was one suggestion of that - and I'll push back against those requests from the start. Given how JSONata is used throughout core nodes, it would be completely inappropriate to do - for all of the reasons you've outlined.

At this point, I just don't really know what else to say. I believe the core nodes do have a pretty well defined purpose. Features will get added to them within their scope. There will always need to be a judgement call in terms of what is 'in scope' or not - trying to tightly define that for each node doesn't feel productive to me. For example, adding different types of rules to the Switch node; its still a node whose purpose is to route messages based on some condition.

But the Function node will always be a bit of an edge case. By its nature, its where code gets written (we are, after all, _low_ code not _no_ code).

I think this topic has run its course and there's not much else I can add. I do appreciate the debate. I do appreciate being challenged the decisions we make as a project. I don't claim to get it right 100% of the time; I just try to keep things moving in a positive direction.

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