Yozons Support on Gmail,
GWT is different things for different people. GWT is not only about use of the widgets provided in the core library, or the use of GWT-RPC. These are just one of numerous features that GWT provides. The ability to write GWT application code in Java and IDE support is a huge productivity gain.
GWT-RPC is no doubt super convenient and easy to make RPC calls and share classes on the client side and server side. However there are usecases that SmartGWT / SmartClient transport protocol currently supports that are not fully supported by GWT-RPC currently.
If you are happy with using GWT-RPC with DTO's or with Gilead, by all means go for it. Infact there is a user extension for a GWTRPCDataSource provider that allows you to use GWT-RPC as the DataSource provided for all Smart GWT components.
As for intermixing of GWT widgets, obviously the goal is to provide 100% interoperability with all other GWT libraries, include the widgets in GWT itself. Infact Smart GWT does support interoperability with GWT widgets but with some caveats like one should not place GWT widgets within a Smart GWT container that is in turn within a GWT widget container. There are certain contracts that the Smart GWT layout management expects which GWT widgets are unaware of and are not able to participate in. Infact there will be similar limitations with most third party libraries that provide their own layout management schemes.
So to answer your question, Smart GWT is a library that allows you to write applications using the GWT technology. Have a look at the features it provides, feel free to ask any questions you have on the Smart GWT forum and if you feel your application may benefit from it, you're free to use it. And if not, just ignore it.
Sanjiv
On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 1:58 PM, Yozons Support on Gmail
<yoz...@gmail.com> wrote:
Who started that rumor? SmartClient folks? ;)
What's not clear to me about SmartGWT, interesting as it seems, is why does it use GWT at all? It seems that they suggest you don't use GWT-RPC and don't mix with GWT widgets, so what exactly is GWT doing in a SmartGWT world?