I just want to echo this for anyone who hasn't already made up their mind: * Writing your own UI in straight-up GWT is not as hard as you might think.
The stock widgets are not beautiful out-of-the-box but they are heavily customizable with CSS. They are *very* easy to learn and nearly always behave "the way you would expect". You can extend the stock widgets easily, adding behavior, events, visual effects, whatever you want. Client/server communication is already elegantly implemented in stock GWT. GXT and SmartGWT have very pretty demos. If what you're really looking for is an attractive app (as opposed to specific behavior in some of their advanced widgets), consider that they both have very steep learning curves. In the time it will take you to learn to use these systems with facility, you could learn enough to extend GWT with custom widgets and customize the CSS to your liking. Maybe even publish a few pieces as opensource for the rest of us :-) It should also not go without mention that GXT and SmartGWT will have a significant impact on the size of your download. Even trivial GXT apps are 600+k, and code splitting is useless. Jeff On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 4:52 PM, ahhughes <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks to everyone who has chipped in on this discussion. I'm glad I > posted the question and go so much attention. > > My take on this: > > Point #1: Both GXT and SmartGWT have issues. There are so many > different opinions in this discuss and I feel that signifies that > neither have been widely accepted as reliable/mature/enterprise > extensions. Respond if you like, but the evidence is past history :) > > Point #2: There are issues regarding JSNI wrapping libraries (i.e. not > "pure gwt") which result in instability, inconsistancies between API's > and a lack of interaction between JavaScript and GWT communities. None > of which is beneficial and is causing problems. > > Conclusion: > > Sticking to just the CORE GWT 2.0 seems like the best advice! In case > you are wondering, here's how.. > http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/doc/latest/DevGuide.html > > CHEERS :) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google Web Toolkit" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Web Toolkit" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en.
