GWT and Kotlin
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Juan Liska
Mar 5, 2016, 5:38:28 PM3/5/16
to GWT Users
I have used GWT since 2007 not because i like java more than javascript, but because it gave me:
- type safety
- refactoring
- intelligent i18n
- automatic sprite management
- output fairly certain to work on all popular browsers
I don't think typescript or any of the now-popular stacks provide these things as elegantly as GWT can provide them, but GWT is definitely the least popular web framework nowadays probably because java is boring to write and compilation time is slow. I realize part of the point of GWT was to allow java programmers to work on web stuff, but java is kind of a pain and it's a shame to lose the good parts of GWT.
I wonder if any of the GWT devs have seen Scala.js or Kotlin (which can compile to js). Would it be viable to integrate with those stacks?
Gilberto
Mar 8, 2016, 12:35:03 PM3/8/16
to GWT Users
In your opinion, do you think Java is still boring to write with Java 8 syntax? Or the is the not-optional type-safety that makes it boring?
I agree that the compilation time is slow, but it used to be "world-stopping" slow before the super dev mode. Since you use GWT since 2007 you probably remember those dark days. The compilation time for production is still slow though.
In my opinion GWT is not super popular nowadays not just because the language, but because GWT is not "advertised" anymore, if you know what I mean. For example, there's no mention to GWT on any Google events anymore, there are few-to-none blog posts talking about GWT which are up-to-date, several open-source projects written in GWT abandoned on GitHub and so on. All of that transmits the feeling that the community or the project (or both) are dead.
Another example, last year on Google I/O Extended (here in my city), I talked about some design patterns to be used on App Engine when dealing with long requests. And I wrote some examples using GWT, since the App Engine code was in Java. I was surprised that when I asked "who knows what is GWT?", only a few people rose their hands on the audience.
And even worse: after me there was a presentation about Angular 2, using Typescript. The guy that presented it talked about the wonders of the type-safety and how it can save the world from destruction by aliens who doesn't understand types. After the presentation, when I asked him "How is that different from GWT?", he answered: "GWT? Never heard of it.". Ouch.
Since Google doesn't "advertise" GWT anymore, it's up to us, the community, to stay healthy and inspired. Not an easy task when you see no many abandoned GWT projects out there. But there are some examples that surprise and inspire you, such as the (again, sorry guys) GWT Material project.
I agree that the compilation time is slow, but it used to be "world-stopping" slow before the super dev mode. Since you use GWT since 2007 you probably remember those dark days. The compilation time for production is still slow though.
In my opinion GWT is not super popular nowadays not just because the language, but because GWT is not "advertised" anymore, if you know what I mean. For example, there's no mention to GWT on any Google events anymore, there are few-to-none blog posts talking about GWT which are up-to-date, several open-source projects written in GWT abandoned on GitHub and so on. All of that transmits the feeling that the community or the project (or both) are dead.
Another example, last year on Google I/O Extended (here in my city), I talked about some design patterns to be used on App Engine when dealing with long requests. And I wrote some examples using GWT, since the App Engine code was in Java. I was surprised that when I asked "who knows what is GWT?", only a few people rose their hands on the audience.
And even worse: after me there was a presentation about Angular 2, using Typescript. The guy that presented it talked about the wonders of the type-safety and how it can save the world from destruction by aliens who doesn't understand types. After the presentation, when I asked him "How is that different from GWT?", he answered: "GWT? Never heard of it.". Ouch.
Since Google doesn't "advertise" GWT anymore, it's up to us, the community, to stay healthy and inspired. Not an easy task when you see no many abandoned GWT projects out there. But there are some examples that surprise and inspire you, such as the (again, sorry guys) GWT Material project.
Kirill Prazdnikov
Mar 8, 2016, 2:08:00 PM3/8/16
to GWT Users
There are other java->JS compiles which support Kotlin.
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