Hi All,
Ingo and I had a chance in JCON 2025 doing this session...
"History of Java UI Development: Live. Die. Repeat."We really enjoyed talking about the evolution of
#Java UI development—from the early days of desktop UIs to modern web browser interfaces. I demonstrated a "Hello World" example using a simple
#GWT-style Java-to-JavaScript transpiler. Interestingly, many developers still aren’t aware of the key differences between GWT-based UI frameworks like DominoUI and server-side browser UI frameworks like
#Vaadin Flow. GWT-based frameworks don’t require a backend at all. They transpile Java source code into JavaScript, allowing the resulting web app to run entirely in the browser—just like any other JavaScript application.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to dive deeper into what we see as the most exciting development: "The Third Wave" – Everything is a Chat. In our view, UI development is undergoing a major shift. In an
#AI-first world, the UI becomes just a simple chat—based on text, voice, video, or images—while an AI agent (
#LLM == The Brain) decides what UI elements to display to the user. This changes everything. There will be far less need for complex UI frameworks, goodbye
#Vue,
#React, and the era of rigid, form-based interfaces may soon be over.
Here are our slides—enjoy!
https://bit.ly/ai-llm-uiBy the way, we also included some nice photos of Cologne and Münster for Java developers looking for travel inspiration in Germany. Both cities are definitely worth a visit!